Chapter 7 – Winners

As the pod floated down, Mega Man told Captain Falcon his story as Falcon adjusted thrusters to land in a safe area. By the time Mega Man had finished explaining, the remains of the Blue Falcon had floated to the ground, in a parking lot, outside of a bar: "The Winner's Circle".

"Let's go get a drink," Captain Falcon said, popping the cockpit open and hopping out.

"A drink?" Mega Man asked, hopping out himself. "Were you listening to me? I'm a robot."

"Well then come watch me drink." Falcon said. "I'm feeling good after that race; let me explain some things to you." Mega Man sighed and followed Falcon to the door. Standing outside the bar was a skeleton in a leather jacket.

"You think that's funny, Falcon?" it asked. "Landing your heap right in the lot?"

"I have to admit," Falcon said, "I do think it's pretty funny. What's your problem, Skull?"

"Maybe it has something to do with you knocking people out of the race left and right?" he answered.

"If by people, you mean you, Skull. And it seems to me you knocked yourself out of the race."

Skull sat silently for a moment and then eyed Mega Man. "He's not twenty one. No way." he said.

"Mega Man, are you twenty one?" Falcon asked. Mega Man opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted. "Of course he's twenty one, Skull." Falcon continued. "Step aside." Skull relented, and Mega Man followed Captain Falcon inside the Winner's Circle. Mega Man of course was built with the frame of a twelve year old, though at this point he was mentally much older. He had never seen a place of such debauchery upon entering the bar. Smoke filled the room; empty bottles were slung all over the place. Television screens were tuned to death races and neon signs placed a hazy hue over everything. Falcon shook an old man's hand. "Hey pops," he said. "Enjoy the race?"

"Oh, it was exciting," the old man replied. "They're replaying your stunt all over the news. I can't believe you stopped in the middle of the race and still got fifth place!"

"Would have gotten first if my hover module hadn't gone out," Falcon responded. Mega Man twiddled his thumbs and looked in another direction at this remark. He wasn't sure if the Captain knew exactly why that had happened. "Mega Man this is Silver Neelsen, retired F-Zero pilot. Neelsen, this is Mega Man."

"Quite a name you got there, kid" the old man said. "Forgive me for not bending down to shake your hand; I just might not be able to bend back up again."

"That's quite alright." Mega Man said. "Captain, were we going to talk about getting me back up onto that track?"

"Nope," the Captain replied. "Private booth, please," he said to Neelsen. He and Mega Man were led to a smaller private section of the bar. "The next course is Big Blue. It's the Ordeal course to be exact. The only way on is to be in the race."

"You can't just give me a ride to one of the pink sections?" Mega Man asked.

"These courses are highly restricted," Falcon answered. "You can only get there as a certified competitor in a race. And I can't afford to lose another race; I can't take your extra weight."

"Why is winning so important to you?" Mega Man asked.

"I'm locked in a battle for first place in the GP with a man named Black Shadow. The prize money is enormous. Black Shadow is an intensely evil man. If he wins the GP and the prize money his followers and power will increase exponentially."

"How much prize money could there possibly be?" Mega Man asked.

"Trillions," Falcon answered. "It's more than the GDP of this entire planet. Racing is everything in this galaxy."

"That's ridiculous," Mega Man said. "How can a multi-planet economy be built on the basis of people racing to death?

"I'm a bounty hunter, not an economist," Falcon replied. "If I win this GP I can take Shadow down a few pegs."

"And gain trillions of dollars?" Mega Man asked.

"I've already won this once before," Falcon assured. "After buying a testing facility, test courses, and building the latest versions of the Blue Falcon and the Great Falcon, and buying a few islands, I donated the rest to charity. I intend to do the same when I win this time."

"After buying all the necessities" Mega Man retorted.

"Look," Falcon said. "You can judge me all you want, but that won't get you your weapon energy. The only way to get on an F-zero course is to enter a race."

"And you can get me in?" Mega Man asked.

"In a manner of speaking," Falcon said. "Earlier I saw you change colors. Can you do that on the fly?"

"Usually my colors just match whatever weapon I'm equipping," said Mega Man. "But," he continued as his helmet and battle uniform flashed and were suddenly gone, leaving him in jeans and white tee shirt. "I can change the tone of anything I have: my clothes, my uniform, my skin, hair, and eyes." Mega Man accentuated this by changing his hair from brown to blonde, and by changing his skin to a darker tone.

"How'd you do that?" Falcon was impressed. "Where did your uniform go?"

"I have a teleportation system," Mega Man answered. "It converts me to an energy form for fast travel. It's meaningless here because all of the teleportation spots are preprogrammed in by an outside computer."

"Go on," Falcon said.

"Well, for most small items I need to carry with me, I can convert them into the same energy and put them into a small storage space in my back. Then I can simply teleport them out in front of me." Mega Man demonstrated by having his communicator and his 'S' emblem appear on the table. Both of the items felt important to Mega Man, however, and he quickly drew them back in. "It's big enough to carry my uniform, some civilian clothes, and a few small items."

"It's impressive technology," Falcon said.

"I have a question," Mega Man asked. "If you get me in the race, am I going to be able to just drive to the pink stuff and refill my weapon reserve, or is there going to be a catch?"

"Of course there's a catch," Falcon said. "I'm the only serious competitor within mathematical reach of beating Dark Shadow. I almost had it cinched until I had to take fifth place because of rescuing you."

"Once again, I'm sorry," Mega Man said, "and thank you."

"Actually that's the first time you've actually said thank you, not that I'm counting." Falcon continued. "The only way for me to take this thing is for me to place third and for Shadow to take third or below. I have a lot of rivals in there who would rather see me lose than to actually win themselves. I know they're going to scoop the second place and the victory to Dark Shadow if they possibly can. So I need someone on my side to come in second."

"No one dislikes Dark Shadow more than you?" Mega Man asked.

"There are quite a few racers out there who want to see me win over him," Falcon responded. "But the fact is they're mostly terrible drivers. I need all the help I can get. Samurai Goroh, Dr. Stewart, and Pico are the best and they are going to do anything to see me lose. We have a history. Just below them are Blood Falcon and Mr. E.A.D. Blood Falcon's actually a clone of me, bred to serve Dark Shadow. Mr. E.A.D. is a mystery. He's a robot but no one knows anything about the people who built him. He's a great pilot but he takes seventh place in every race, and I'm relatively sure he's doing it on purpose."

"So you want me, who has never piloted one of these before, to come in second place?" Mega Man asked.

"That's the idea," Falcon said. A large mug of some liquid was delivered to the table. "I saw you on the race track actually dodge by a car by sliding under it, and then jump over another." Falcon took a gulp of his drink. "You could only do something like that if you had reflexes bordering on precognition. If you can dodge a car on foot, you could be an amazing pilot."

"Maybe with heavy training," Mega Man said. "But the race is tomorrow," Mega Man saw a scrolling ad Marquee in the booth declaring the date of the Big Blue race.

"Well tell me," Falcon said, "do you have any experience racing?" He began to take another gulp.

"Go karts," Mega Man answered. Captain Falcon spit his drink out all over the place. "Well it was a go kart death race." he added.

"Good Lord," the Captain exclaimed. "Let's get to my private island. I activated my homing beacon a few minutes ago, my ship should be outside. We'll see what you can do in a real racing machine." Mega Man recalled his uniform and helmet. He and Captain Falcon began to walk outside. On the way out they were confronted by a fat man in a tank top wielding a katana.

"Hey Falcon, enjoy your loss today?" he asked.

"Out of my way, Goroh," Falcon ordered. Goroh held out his katana in a menacing manner.

"I'm going to kill you myself tomorrow." he said. Mega Man formed an arm cannon behind his back in case the fight escalated. He couldn't harm a human but he could easily vaporize a sword. "Word is Dark Shadow will pay anyone who knocks you out of the race 10 of the prize money. Maybe I'll knock you out of the race right now." Falcon remained calm and casually held his arms to his side.

"Falcon," Falcon said. He pulled his arm back like he was going to do something, but just stood there. There was an awkward silence for a few moments.

"Uh, Captain Falcon?" Mega Man asked.

"What the hell?" Goroh asked, perplexed at the Captain's behavior.

"PUNCH!" the Captain shouted, moving his fist forward at an incredible speed. His hand almost seemed to be on fire from the movement. Goroh was hit square in the chest and knocked unconscious, landing in the gutter outside the bar. Captain Falcon and Mega Man walked over to the ship, Great Falcon.

"Some punch," Mega Man said. The Captain just smiled, staying silent for the flight. After about ten minutes travel, the two had landed at what appeared to be a test racing facility. Captain Falcon took Mega Man to a replica Blue Falcon and strapped him in.

"Now what?" Mega Man asked.

Captain Falcon stepped off the track and started a countdown for a test drive. "Show me your moves!"