Chapter 2 – Upset

In the control room situated above the racetrack, Cunningham watched over the status of the mechs. "Alright guys," said Cunningham, speaking into a headset, "You're good to go, head on out to the starting line."

Suzaku's mechs were in fact older models of Velshtein mechs that Cunningham managed to track down. It was thanks to Joshua's hardwork and Cunningham's pocketbook that the mechs were not only refurbished but upgraded to stay competitive with modern IG-machines. The overall design was made more compact, removing some of the bulkier shoulder pieces, slimming down the back, and reinforcing the armor on the limbs. Each mech still retained the capability to glide for short distances, a feature that was unique to team Velshtein. Two of the biggest modifications made were to the controls of the mech Amanda piloted so she would have full control of her mech despite not being able to operate foot pedals, and the power source. A new regulation was put into place five years ago that required all IG-machines to be powered by a hyper compact electric battery rather than relying fossil fuels, in an effort to show that the IGPX supported the global effort for a more environmentally conscious society.

One by one the green and silver mechs of Suzaku walked towards the exit of the hangar, first Amanda, then Kari, and finally Joshua. Inside the dark confines of the IG mech's cockpit, illuminated only by the yellow glow of the heads up display, Joshua was trying his best not to have a heart attack. This was it. This was the real deal. Just calm down. Breathe. No, this was too much. Not only was this his first time in a real race, it was his first time in a mech ever, and he was going up against the IG-1 defending champions, Sledge Mamma. "Hey, stop breathing so loudly," demanded Amanda's voice over the intercom, "I know this is your first race but please, try to keep yourself together. Remember Cunningham put you on the team for a reason."

Another, calmer voice followed, it was Kari. "I agree. Despite your inexperience, your simulator scores are on par with ours." It was true. While he had never piloted the mechs, he used the simulators regularly to test any adjustments made to the equipment, usually after hours when no one was around. Cunningham must've noticed and asked him to be a last minute replacement. The girls were right. "Okay," he told himself, "Just gotta keep it toge- Whoa!" He lost balance of his mech and stumbled forward, crashing into Kari's ahead of him. The mechanical crew watching from the ground winched in unison. Michelle's loud sigh from the control room was audible through the intercom.

"Oh man, I'm so sorry. Are you alright?"

"I am fine," replied Kari, unfazed.

"Hey, careful back there!" scolded Amanda.

"Here we are folks, this is the first race of season and what a matchup it is! The defending champs, Sledge Mamma, versus the rookies of Team Suzaku! If this seems like this is going to be a one-sided race, think again, word on the street is that Suzaku's coach is none other than Cunningham Hume, the legendary Ghost himself!

Once he took his place in line, Joshua looked directly across to his side to the Sledge Mamma machine positioned across from him. Its design and paint job harkened back to an age of roaring motors and muscle machines. They were known for their straight forward and highly aggressive racing style, preferring to win by beating the other team into submission rather than by winning the race, a strategy that's proven its effectiveness by winning them the championship for the past four years. Joshua began to feel a strange anxiousness. When he was younger Joshua would often get picked on by bullies. That feeling he got when the larger or older kid stood over him, the expectation of a punch to the face or a knee to the gut, the terrible anticipation of pain, he was getting it again. Sledge Mamma's midfielder apparently noticed him looking because the mech turned around briefly, raising it's right arm up to where eyes would be on the mech if it had eyes and made a rude gesture.

"And here's the countdown!"

5

4

3

2

1

And they were off.

It was the late afternoon and the setting sun bathed the IGPX City in a warm, orange light. During this time in-between night and day, few people were out. It was too late for daytime activities and too early for night life. The park was virtually empty except for Joshua, who sat quietly on a park bench, with earphones stuffed into his head and music blaring from his MP3 player. He was listening to Yui Yoshiko, a singer who was the current big thing. Posters of her were all over the city and rumor had it that she was going to come to IGPX City soon. While he was a fan of hers, both for her songs and her triumphant personal story of finding stardom despite coming from the slums like Joshua, at the moment none of that mattered. What was important was the volume, which was cranked up to the highest setting. He wanted to drown out everything, his embarrassment at his performance, his incompetence as a pilot, his failure as a teammate, in a wave of sound. That's why he didn't notice at first that a little girl was talking to him.

"-seem sad, mister," was what he managed to catch of what she said as he pulled out his earphones. "If you ate something good it might make you feel better, come on." She motioned for him to follow but when Joshua didn't she came back to pull him by his arm. Relenting, Joshua followed her through the park to a hotdog truck. "Best hotdog in the city," the girl said. A man stuck head out of a service window on the side of the truck.

"Rosemary," said who Joshua guessed was the owner of the truck to the girl, "what did I tell you about bothering strangers?" He then turned his bearded face to Joshua. "I hope she didn't cause you any trouble. She's not exaggerating though. Best hotdog in the city."

"I could eat," said Joshua.

"Well then, because you're a new face, here's one on the house." Joshua thanked him as he took the hotdog and started to eat. "You know, you look familiar. I think I saw you on TV before. You a pilot? Were you in the race"

"Yeah," replied Joshua after a pause.

"Suzaku right?"

Joshua responded with another, "Yeah," though after a much longer pause.

The owner of the hotdog truck laughed. "Well congratulations kid, you guys did good out there for a bunch of rookies."

"I was the midfielder."

"Oh," he stopped laughing, but still smiled. "You're the last minute replacement right? I read that it was your first time out there on the track. You did pretty good, holding out as long as you did against Sledge Mamma, those guys are vicious." Inside Joshua knew it was true that the odds were stacked against him, that it wasn't anything to be ashamed of to have been taken out almost immediately after the start of the second lap when he was a complete rookie going up against the reigning champions. He didn't feel bad about that, not really. What he was brooding over was being dead weight, holding back his teammates with his lack of skill. "Hey, cheer up, kid. You guys won right?"

"Holy Toledo, people, what an upset! Amanda Fox of Suzaku takes first place! Following are the River and Duo of Sledge Mamma and Kari Isabel comes in fourth. The rookies of Team Suzaku just beat the reigning champions in the first race of the season! Folks, if this race is anything to go by, I have a feeling this will probably the most exciting IG-1 season in a long time."

Later on people would remember this moment as the start of something big. After four years of winning the championship, Sledge Mamma had built up a solid racing dynasty that no one seemed to be able to challenge. It was impressive, yes, but it was also boring to have Sledge Mamma win year after year. This one moment of David toppling Goliath signaled that it was now anyone's game. Joshua heard Bright's declaration of Suzaku's victory over the radio while sitting in the crumpled heap that was his mech.

A girl clad in a dark blue pilot suit climbed out of the similarly disabled midfielder machine of Sledge Mamma. As the three veteran pilots of Sledge Mamma were busy triple-teaming the weakest link, Kari had somehow managed to slip by and take out their midfielder. Amanda slipped through the chaos that followed and took the lead. The girl whom Joshua presumed was Trey, looked in his direction as she took off her helmet, revealing two light brown pigtails. She then repeated the same rude gesture shown to him by the mech at the start of the race before walking off. At the very least, Joshua had thought, since he was taken out so quickly at the start of the second lap, it wasn't too long a walk back to the starting point.

In a private box up above the race track, Michelle Suzaku had watched the race with the wealthy man who owned it. Cunningham was the one who usually took charge during races, they wouldn't have missed her. It was well after the race now but she stayed behind to talk business. "Well, Ms. Suzaku, I must say I am very impressed with your team's performance," said the man, his smooth, practiced voice in a tone that was slightly condescending. Michelle did her best to flash a smile through the annoyance that she felt.

"Then we have a deal?"

"No." It was suddenly harder for Michelle to hold the smile.

"I heard you were a betting man, Mr. Meto, you're not afraid of a little risk are you?" prodded Michelle.

"I do a little here and there, and that's why I'm not willing to make a move just yet. A good gambler doesn't count on lady luck, he waits and watches, gathering information and analyzing the situation in order to minimize risk, and that's what I think I'll do for now."

In the meeting room, Amanda celebrated her victory with the rest of Team Suzaku. "You were amazing out there!" "Those were some great moves!" "You really showed them." "The IG-1 better watch out!" All afternoon she had been hearing those types of comments and it felt good. Sure, she liked the rush that surged through her body and mind during a race, it was exciting, but what she really loved was the warmth of basking in the winner's spotlight. She liked getting praised, not that she ever let it get to her head. At least, she tried not to.

On the television hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the room, the sports talk show hosted by Benjamin Bright was on. Currently they were cutting away to a message from Sledge Mamma. The visage of the always cool River Marque was currently on, standing against a background of weight lifting equipment in Sledge Mamma's headquarters and a towel hanging over his shoulder. "Well Benjamin, what can I say, after four championships we've gotten a little sloppy. Put on a little weight, figuratively speaking of course." Of course. The purple athletic shirt he wore showed off his well-toned arms. Like all IGPX pilots, he worked out regularly. "Still, you got to give credit where credit's due. Suzaku ran a great race out there today, especially that Amanda Fox." That was it. That set her over the top. River Marque, the River Marque, just complimented her. On television. Right now.

"Hey, you know where Joshua is?" she heard, snapping her out of her elation. It was Cunningham.

"Oh, I don't know. He went out for a walk after the race I think."

"He seemed pretty down."

"What? Why? We won didn't we?"

"The team did, but he didn't. It was his first race, and in the IG-1 at that. He had it pretty rough out there."

"He'll get over it. Besides, I'm good enough to cover for him, we'll be fine. We already beat the champs, the rest'll be small fry compared to Sledge Mamma." At that, Cunningham's usually friendly face turned stern.

"Don't relax just yet. You're race today sent a message out to the other teams. You guys are the ones they'll be gunning for now. Every team we race from now on will be going all out."

"Right, I got it, don't worry about it." Amanda grinned at Cunningham, whose cheerful expression still hadn't returned.


Author's Note

Okay so here's the second chapter. Now if anyone is reading this, you may have noticed the order of events isn't necessarily chronological. That's something I wanted to try carrying over from anime, both the two season one and the microseries. If you'll remember, the biggest example was when they cut away in the middle of the race against Sledge Mamma, only to have you find out the results later. It's a presentation that I've tried to recreate here as an experiment, though it might not be the best way to present a story in writing.

As for the soundtrack, this time we have

"Verbal (Live)" – Amon Tobin
"Going Down" – Funki Porcini