It was a memory I wish we all could forget, the world fifth annual combat racing grand prix of the yellow eco cup was all his with the 10 point lead and a 6.3 second split time we all knew he was going to win. That's what we thought until Razor cheated with a rigged bomb on the bottom of Dad's car. It went off when he passed the finish line. He survived that and took the cup but the end was near.
The paramedics took him to the hospital as fast as they could. He was severely burned and losing a lot of blood quickly. I remember Mom holding his hand as he died a slow and painful death. I remember him asking Mom to finish him off because it was so bad. On his death bed, he gave me an amulet with our family seal on it. He told me that he would give it to me when I turned seventeen but due to the circumstances it wasn't that easy anymore. It was so painful for a little girl to comprehend. I was only five years old when my father died. I just wish I could forget that day. These last ten years have been a real trial for us all. The people of our planet missed him badly because they lost their hero that saved them from the Dark Makers, the metal heads, and two crazy sages and humiliated Mizo five years prier to his death.
I just don't understand what I'm supposed to be like. Everyone expects me to live up to his legacy but I just don't think I can do that. Hell I carry his name! I cant seem to escape it. I just want to be me and end this conspiracy! I know he was murdered but there isn't much I can do about that. I have looked over the case records and its inconclusive. Who would be that sick to take him away from us? I try not to look back and live in the now. This is my legacy. My story to tell. What lies ahead is uncertain but ill tell it as it comes to us in the crusade to figure out what really happened and to unlock the secrets of these powers and new artifacts the precursors don't ever know how to use.
It was the tenth anniversary of his death. We all paid our respects once again. I never thought I would see her so upset since he left us. Nowadays she doesn't even look at me because I take after him more than her. According to Daxter, I'm nearly a clone of him. Even our personalities are the same. I never really knew much about him other than the stories and that warm mile he always had when I was little. What more was to tell? I wish he was here with us now.
As I leave the house, out in reconstructed old town or as its called now Sandover, I go to Gramp's place to retrieve my jetbord which I'm working for modifications on. He was in the same old mood as always, grumpy and sarcastic but that's Grandpa for you. I creep into the lab and he catches me. " You can atleast let me know you're here, Jaklyn. You cant just come and go as you please.. What if you blow something up over here and I didn't know you were here? You would die and it would be your fault," he says. " You were the one that said I could be here anytime I wanted to.." I say. "As long as you let me know you're here," he interrupts. "Don't you think that I've lost my mind because I'm old. I know what I said. Obviously it goes in one ear and out the other one," he says as he tugs on my ear slightly. I roll my eyes and get my board.
I spread out the solar cloth and work on making a solar sail to complement my blue eco combustion drive I put on it to increase the speed. The sail would provide the necessary electricity because power cells were too cumbersome to work with for me. I needed better control with it too so this was a two bird with a rock killing. I have been working on this thing all year for my science project for school. You will not believe how uncreative some people are. The old volcano one, the bottle rockets, and stuff like that is really dumb because they make the same stuff every year. I was in the bag for it this time. Last year the board broke down and well exploded last time in mid air. Note to self: make an emergency failsafe so this doesn't happen and helmets are required.
I worked on that for about an hour and took it with me into Haven to pick up my best buddy, Darren. I put on my helmet and put some goggles Mom gave me and a scarf for my face. Damn it was fast as hell! I ran over a couple of cops on the way. They were out cold because of the shear speed. I forgot to install some good breaks because WHAM! I run strait through his house and landed in his room. Daxter and Tess looked through the gaping hole in the wall. "DAMNIT!! We just fixed that from the last crash landing!" Daxter hollers at me.
"Sorry Dax, still working out the kinks in the breaking system. I'll fix the wall with my new and improved stuff fixer!" I announce. They all star at me as I pull it out and they all scream," NOOOOOO!!" For the first time it really worked and fixed their stuff. They starred in awe. Poor Tess, she fainted. Darren climbs up on to my shoulder and we go to the construction site to have some fun.
"Oh yea! But uh…Jakkie? What if we get caught again? The last time you got arrested," Darren says. "Don't be a chicken shit, Darren, I got it covered," I tell him. I had it all planed plus I have friends with some of the cops. I just hope they are in a good mood today. We slip on our helmets and goggles, I raise the sail, and kick the ignition bar and off we went at speeds toping 50 mph. Darren clung to me for dear life due to the speed and tricks. I swerved around equipment and flipped over some more. I drop the sail and get low on the board as we go threw a huge cuter thing. The sheer adrenaline kept it going. I power jumped over the fence on the way out to find the cops on my ass.
My first thought was, "Oh shit." I head down into the Forbidden Jungle hopping to lose them. I really didn't want to go to juvie for being stupid enough to go out to that construction site again. I kicked it into high gear and ran over a blue eco vent . We were going so fast that I lost control of it. We lost the cops but crashed into Grandpa's house. Well he's pissed.
"Damn you child! Put some breaks on that contraption!," he bellows. "Ugg… Look at this! You have destroyed half my house!" I struggle to stand but I get up. "By the precursors! Lyn! I'm taking that board from you to put some safety modifications on that," Mom says as she walks in to see me covered in blood. From there I was dragged to the hospital. The hospital still gives me the chills even after ten years. I really hate the E.R. The I.V. hurt like a bitch going in. What's worse I had to stay in traction because I turned my collar bone into dust. Darren was okay. He got away with just some stitches and some green eco doses. Lucky dog err rat.
The pain drugs they used on me made my head spin and really gave me vertigo. I really didn't keep lunch down after that. I looked out the window and saw something that scared me half to death, Dad. I assumed that I was seeing shit from the drugs. I just felt so run down from the drugs and motion sick. I fell into a dreamless sleep. I was never known to be a light sleeper but I felt a warm hand stroke my hair and some one say, "Damn it girl, put some breaks on that thing." and a brief laugh. These pain killers are really going to my head.
The next morning, I wake up to the horrible pain and they refused to feed me. I guess I have to endure surgery aft the shit that happened to my collar bone. Well I was right. Thank god they put me to sleep because I don't think anyone wants to feel that. When I woke up in the recovery unit, Mom was there with the board. "I put some breaks on it for when your going at high speeds so you don't end here again. Just kick this down and let the party poppers fly," she says and showing me a smaller lever on the back of the board. "This bar on the sail grip will force you to lose speeds of anything under and at 50 miles per hour. It cuts off the blue eco supply down to just enough to keep you levitating." Why didn't I think of that?
I notice that my arm doesn't hurt and I can move it again. I love modern medicine.
When we get home I grab my back pack and leave. I tell mom I'm going to go shopping but I can't bear to tell her where I'm really going. I go to the place she told me to meet her. Yea I took off to see a girl. I don't know what mom would do or say if she knew I was gay. She was a little late but its okay. She's worth waiting for. She gets here in a tunic dress and some pretty shorts. "Alex, you didn't need to dress up. I didn't," I say. Well I was wearing a tunic with some shorts and combat boots and some weird sleeve things like Yuna from that video game(final fantasy X) . She's so mesmerizing to look at. Why did she pick me I wonder? I guess that's my charm. She takes me by the hand in there. We paid for everything in advance so we were good to go. We sat down and talked a bit. The food was okay.
We later went to her house. We sat on her couch and watched pointless TV. I got up and looked in the mirror and noticed I looked odd with my long hair. It was long and curly. With my tomboy looks it was the only thing beside my chest that defined me as a girl. Pull it back and notice how much I really look like him. I found some scissors and cut I to shoulder length. Mom's going to kill me. Alex walks in to see me cleaning up the mess. She ran her fingers threw my hair. She looked kind of upset. She shook her head and kissed me. "Its cute but your mom is going to flip," she said.
"Ya know, what? I think its time she met you," I said. We put on the helmets and such and went to my house on the new and improved jet board or as I now call it the jet surf. I tried to keep the speeds low for safety stuff. " I don't know how she will react so be cool about it," I tell her. " Hey, Mom! Can I ask you something?"
"Yea, what cha need?" she replies with a smile. "Would you be mad if I was well uh……"
"If you where what?" she says. "Gay," I say.
"Well are you?"
"Well yea and this is Alex, she's my girlfriend of at leas uh a year."
She looked at me with this alien look and ran off and started to cry. I go out there and she her running to the pier. I walk over there hoping to calm her down. She says to me, "What's wrong with you child? Your supposed to like boys and stuff like that and you turn out a gay tomboy or more accurately him!?" I get mad from that point on, " Well if you would just let him go this would all be over. I'm not him! Stop treating me like the worst mistake of your life! Its not your god damned fault! Stop being so self absorbed be a good mother and accept me!" She gets ever madder and quite frankly I get kicked out of the home I grew up in. I took my butt to Darren's. "Hey Tess, mom just kicked me out for a few days? Can I come stay with you guys for a few days?" she looks up at me with a odd look. "Sure, Jakkie. We weren't expecting this so your going to have to sleep on the sofa. What did you do to Kiera to make her so mad as to kick you out anyway?" She replies.
" I came out of the closet and got depressed and mad and said stuff like I was turning into Dad," I said. Tess looked suddenly sad and shook her head. I curled up on the sofa and died. Alex walked home when mom blew up. She didn't want to get in the middle of it. I can understand that. After school the next day I go to see if she's okay and she is sitting there on the deck . I walk over there and suddenly, I hear a bang and she collapsed. I ran to her and she was dead. I run in the house and grab Dad's gun. I go outside but the killer is already gone. I'm not going to stop until I get to the bottom of this shit.