MSMF Prompt #99: Second Best
"Sparx, we're supposed to be patrolling the city, not performing an air show."
"Will you stop nagging me brainstrain? Turn in your pilot's license, then, but I was born to fly." Sparx emphasised his point with a few loop-de-loops.
"I am just as competent of a pilot as you are, Sparx, but I choose not to show off." Gibson applied a burst of speed and caught up with his friend.
"You are not, you'd rather be driving the torso tank or blowing something up in that lab of yours," Sparx teased.
"Take that back!" Gibson gasped. "Any move you can perform I can perform just as competently!"
"Oh really? How about a little competition then?"
"Compete? For what?" Gibson asked.
"Oh how about the second best pilot turns in his pilot's license," Sparx teased.
"Oh really? And who, pray tell, will pilot the looser's fist rocket?" Gibson asked.
"I will, just to shut the two of you up!" Nova said, breaking in to their frequency.
"You just want to get closer to me don't you?" Sparx joked.
"No, I want to fly circles around you and get you two to stop arguing over who's the better pilot!" she said.
"Oh ho, I think you have some added competition Sparx," Gibson laughed.
"Oh yeah, you're on brainstrain! Who's going to judge the competition?"
"I believe Chiro and I shall be the best non-partial judges for this," Antauri said, adding his thoughts to the conversation.
"Very well. When do you wish to begin this contest, Sparx?" Gibson asked.
"Tomorrow morning?"
"Very well."
The next morning the team was up bright and early. Antauri summoned Gibson and Sparx to the brain scrambler to explain the rules for their competition that he had devised the night before.
"You will each pilot the brain scrambler, so that there will be equal footing. Otto is placing floating buoys to designate the course. You will each fly the course once, then you will have the opportunity to 'show off' as it were. Chiro and I will observe from the Super Robot and we will declare the winner. The second best pilot will spend the next week piloting Nova's foot crusher cruiser. Are these terms acceptable?" Antauri asked.
"Fine by me, you're going down brainstrain!"
"No, I believe it is you who shall be going down."
"Very well. Sparx, you are first. Gibson, you shall wait in the foot crusher while he makes his run."
Gibson and Antauri left the brain scrambler and Sparx took his position, grasping the controls. He shifted around a bit, trying to find a comfortable position, unused to the slightly different controls in the Robot's head.
"You may begin Sparx."
And thus the competition began. Sparx pulled out his best moves for both portions of the contest, although he was a little nervous about some of his turns. The brain scrambler was slightly larger than the fist rockets and didn't handle with the same finesse.
Gibson tried to fly smart, and not make mistakes. His freestyle run may not have had the flamboyance of Sparx's but he didn't nearly take out a tree like Sparx had.
After both competitors had flown their two runs, the entire team met in the Control Room. Sparx was bragging to Nova about all his moves, and she was trying to inch away. Antauri cleared his throat and all discussion ceased.
"Chiro and I have made a decision."
Sparx jumped up. "Thank you, thank you, no applause needed."
"I am not finished," Antauri glared at the red monkey until he sat back down. "As I was saying, we have decided that while Sparx's piloting was flamboyant, Gibson proved superior technical prowess and is the winner."
Sparx's jaw hit the floor. "WHAT?!"
Nova punched him in the shoulder. "Have fun driving the foot crusher cruiser!"
"No fair!" Sparx said. "I'm the best pilot! Brainstrain can't have beaten me!"
"Sparx, you agreed to abide by our decision, and it is not changing. The tapes of Gibson's runs are in the computer if you wish to improve your skills." Antauri smiled. "That is, once the week is up."
THE END