Chapter 1: An Unexpected Opportunity
The race car was beautiful.
A sleek, modern design, it sat low to the ground and sported a state of the art engine, with four shiny exhaust pipes extending down from the hood of the car all the way to the rear. The deep, red paint was interrupted only by criss-crossing black racing stripes that wound and spun towards the back of the car like ribbons dancing in the wind. The color gave it an almost elegant appearance, though it was built with only one thing in mind. Speed.
Too bad the entire front right side of the car was mangled nearly beyond repair, like an ill-tempered armadillo lion had chewed it up and spat it back out. The metal on the hood was peeling back from an impact with some solid object-most likely a wall, other cars didn't leave such clean marks-and the exhaust pipes were cracked and still leaking puffs of steam.
Asami regarded the race car for another moment before sighing and turning away. Behind her stood two men: one aged and withered with a perpetually sour look on his face and the other young and nervous, hopping from one foot to the other like his shoes were on fire. She addressed the former. "What did Koji do this time, bank the turn too fast and flip it over?"
The boy in question threw up his arms before the older man could reply. "It wasn't my fault! I was taking an outside turn and another car rammed me into the side of the racetrack. Totally an illegal move, not like any of the judges would ever admit it."
Asami sighed. Whether he was telling the truth or not, Koji was right about one thing: the judges would never rule an unsportsmanlike conduct call in their favor. The Future Industries racing team simply wasn't popular, not after her father tainted the name with the Equalist agenda. It was why they had virtually no supporters at every race and why they had to resort to letting an overeager eighteen year old boy become their primary racer instead of a seasoned veteran.
Unfortunately that overeager boy was also an impossibly good racer, which made him almost equally impossible to reason with. "I would have won, otherwise," he said, a cocky grin overtaking his face. His companion smacked him loudly upside the head. "Ow! Goro, stop!"
"I'll stop when you win more races than you wreck," the older man replied, crossing wrinkled arms stained in machine oil and grease in front of his blue coveralls. The slightest twitch on the side of his mouth told Asami that the mechanic wasn't actually mad, but Koji hadn't been with them long enough to know that.
She chuckled softly. "He's right, Koji. You have to be more careful." Anticipating his argument before the words left his mouth, she held up a hand to silence him. "I know it's not fair. But, right now, there's nothing we can do about that. We have to play by the rules and they don't. So that means we need to be extra careful and still win." She twisted her mouth into a ruthless smile. "And I know you can beat any of those other drivers in a fair race, so just consider it a challenge, ok?"
"Fine, fine...I guess you're right." Suitably mollified, the younger boy slumped his shoulders and eyed the wrecked car. "Do we have to start fixing it today?"
Asami shot a sideways glance at the race car, whose front looked like a Flame-O Instant Noodles can that had been smashed ruthlessly between two probending earth discs. It would take at least two weeks of labor to fix that. "No use starting today," she said. "I'll survey the damage and we'll start tomorrow."
"Woo-hoo!" Koji's fist pumped the air as he shot up, racing out of the warehouse in record time. "Thanks Asami, I'll see you tomorrow!"
Next to her, the older mechanic chuckled. "I still don't know what you were thinking when you hired him. Talented, but no self control."
"One of these days he'll learn. I hope." The heiress pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "All of our other racers quit, and nobody in good standing would even think to race with us. What choice do we have, Goro?"
"Retire on your father's fortune and live in the lap of luxury?" Asami shot him a glare and he grinned, showing off two missing teeth. "Right, forgot who I was talking to. You gonna want me around to look at that thing?"
He half-heartedly waved a hand towards the vehicle like it was a standard Satomobile, not a state of the art racing car. Asami sighed. That was Goro for you; machines were machines, no reason to get too romantic about it.
"No, I should be alright. I won't be too long."
"If you say so," was the curt reply. "Just don't go spending the night here like you did last time you ended up staying here 'not too long.'"
Asami rolled her eyes before grabbing a toolbox off her desk, heading towards the race car. "I'll be fine. Good night, Goro."
"G'night."
She listened to the sound of his retreating footsteps and waited until she heard the door close to approach the car. Setting the toolbox on the ground, she rested both palms on the still-warm hood and lowered her head, letting out a heavy sigh.
Once upon a time, Future Industries was the leader in everything related to automobiles. They built Satomobiles and forklifts and race cars, and each product had its very own warehouse with at least twenty workers to keep production going. The warehouses were easily big enough to move five Satomobiles around, with many more parts stored around the premises on conveyor belts.
Now, they had only two warehouses-one for production and one for research and maintenance. Since her father's arrest, Satomobile production had slowed almost to a stop. They still got a couple of orders now and again, usually from collectors, but they didn't have enough money to keep any development going. Cabbage Corp had quickly overtaken them as the top vehicle manufacturer in the city, even though all their cars were painted in a horrible shade of green!
Their production warehouse now stayed busy mostly with Future Industries Forklifts. Thankfully, they remained the top supplier for such manufacturing equipment-she supposed there was less righteous indignation in buying boring old forklifts. Those orders kept the rest of Future Industries afloat.
Like the tiny research warehouse she was in now, where she spent most of her time. Tinkering with old engines, trying to keep the race cars of Future Industries faster and safer than their competition, even if they had nothing to show for it. Even with the stigma against her family name, Asami loved every minute she spent working on the cars. Her father was a businessman, but she loved to build.
She walked back towards the lone desk in the warehouse and perched on the top, surveying the car from a distance. If she tilted her head to the side and squinted, it didn't look so bad...
Oh, who was she kidding? It would take a miracle to return this car to racing condition. It was a good thing she grew up around race cars, since Koji kept her busy fixing the cars he tended to wreck on the racetrack.
Straightening up, she grabbed an elastic out of one of the draws and pulled her hair back, careful to keep the meticulously straightened strands out of her face. Grabbing her toolbox, she marched back towards the car and lifted the hood, assessing the damage there. The motor, thankfully, had taken minimal damage, hopefully leaving her with mostly bodywork to deal with.
With that thought, she shuffled under the hood of the car to see what she could start fixing today. The low-riding vehicle left her little room to lay comfortably, but that was where being a slimmer girl came in handy. Any other mechanic would need to prop the car up before fitting underneath.
It was in this position-on her back and rolled under the car-where Nobuo found her.
"Miss Sato! Miss Sato!"
Startled, Asami sat up and slammed her head into the underside of the vehicle. Cursing, she pushed out from under the hood so she could give a suitable glare to her most enthusiastic board member.
Well, her only board member. But that wouldn't stop her.
"Miss Sato!" Nobuo was slightly past middle aged-just like her father-and was the only other person besides Goro who had worked at Future Industries longer than she had. He was a kind man, with a penchant for wearing oddly colored brown suits over his rotund midsection and prone to excitement over any sort of things, no matter how silly.
"Yes, Nobuo? What is it?" Nobuo was also the only person who could still get away with calling her Miss Sato; all other employees she insisted call her Asami. Koji had once called her Miss Sato when he had gotten particularly cross with her, and to this day he still would subconsciously rub his right shoulder around her. To be fair, she could have hit him much harder.
"Have you read the paper today?" In front of her, the older man was finally catching his breath, and was clutching a wrinkled newspaper in his right hand. He slammed it down on the desk with enthusiasm, causing a container of pencils to rattle.
Asami regarded the paper with suspicion. Being the daughter of an Equalist leader and industry tycoon, as well as the ex-girlfriend of the Avatar's boyfriend and a friend of the Avatar, she did not have a very good relationship with the papers. "No, I haven't. Why?"
Nobuo bounced up and down, his graying-brown mustache twitching with excitement. "Because, Miss Sato, read the headline!"
Asami unfolded the paper and pressed it down over the desk, leaning over to get a proper look at the headline. Cabbage Corp Introduces New 'Convertible' Vehicle, Takes City by Storm. She scowled, fighting the urge to ball up her fists and destroy the paper in the process.
"We knew about this, Nobuo. Why are you showing me Cabbage Corp's victories?"
The older man frowned, impatience written all over his face. "Not that article, Miss Sato. To the left."
"Flame-O To Hold Contest for New Flavor?"
"No, no, my left!"
Shaking her head, Asami swept her gaze over to the other side of the paper. Finally, wedged between a large picture of an ugly green vehicle with no roof and a short article about a new sport being exhibited at the arena, was the bolded headline.
Fire Lady To Hold First "Airship" Race.
Asami felt her heartbeat picking up. "Airship race? Why would the Fire Lady hold an airship race?"
Nobuo swept a wrinkling hand over the paper. "It explains in the article. She's holding it in honor of the coronation for the Fire Prince."
The Fire Prince.
Oh, spirits. Iroh.
The mention of the fire prince put a halt on her growing excitement over the race. It had been four years since she had seen him last, but that didn't mean she was any bit less wary of meeting him again. Their parting had been...less than civil. She was in no hurry to relive those words, that feeling that gripped her like an unagi squeezing her heart, when he told her that he was leaving to return to the Fire Nation.
"And this race is...a good thing?" Asami chose her words carefully, her mind still reeling with Iroh and all the possibilities of a new race. A flying race.
Nobuo shifted his weight from one foot to the other, mustache twitching upwards with his smile. "Yes! And Cabbage Corp is entering, meaning we have a chance to draw attention back to the Satomobile industry while they're off in the Fire Nation!"
Asami fought back a sigh. Trust Nobuo to be the perpetual businessman. She couldn't fault him for that; he was supposed to keep the best interests of the business at heart. And if they could wedge their way back into the automobile world when Cabbage Corp was off racing biplanes, that would boost their production exponentially.
But there was one thing that could be better.
"Nobuo, we're entering this contest."
The older man stopped bouncing to stare at her, an incredulous look painted all over his features. Asami had to fight back a giggle-he looked exactly like Bolin right after she had once dumped a bucket of water over him and Korra for coming home drunk.
"You can't be serious," he stuttered. "We stopped development of your father's biplane four years ago, since nobody wanted to buy an Equalist machine. Cabbage Corp and Mecha-machine Inc. are years ahead of us in development."
Asami gritted her teeth. "Then we won't be held back by any old models or backers. We'll have a chance to bring something new to the table." The idea of designing something besides a racecar had adrenaline pumping through her with excitement. There were so many things she could do!
Nobuo was still giving her a look akin to a gaping fish, so she amended her argument. "Plus, think of all the press we'll get if we win. It'll be a fresh start for Future Industries, something we sorely need."
He tapped his chin, clearly intrigued by the idea of a new image and free advertising. "I suppose you have a point there..."
"Of course I do," Asami grinned, eyes lighting up with a competitive spirit she hadn't felt in years. "It would be just the kick we need to become competitive again."
"Very well, Miss Sato. I'll start looking into the details. Are you sure you do not wish to sit on our decision for entering...?"
"No." Her reply was curt. "No, just please find out what we need to do to enter."
"Alright, then. I'll report back tomorrow."
Asami sighed as she watched the older gentleman turn and leave the warehouse, shuffling slightly from side to side. Nobuo was a businessman, and a realist. Of course he wanted to talk through such an important decision before making it final. To do otherwise would be rash and nonsensical.
But if Nobuo started listing out the pros and cons, she would actually have to think her plan through. And she didn't need to start thinking about what specifically a race in the Fire Nation would entail. Where she would be staying, who she would have to see. If she did, she may back out before they even started.
And she couldn't do that. This was their chance to put Future Industries back on the map, and nothing was going to stop her. Not Cabbage Corp, not her father, not Future Industries' abysmal public image.
And most certainly not her stupid, honorable, Fire Prince of an ex-boyfriend.
A/N: So...hey guys! It's been a while! Unfortunately, life caught up with me in all sorts of awesome ways so I haven't been able to write at all over the past few months. But I'm finally getting a chance to write again, and I just couldn't wait to post this story. I hope you like it, I'm very much looking forward to continuing it. Let me know what you think!
