Roll the Die, Sky!
Now for more of this cuz apparently everyone loves this story, and not the super angst in "Night Grinned Viciously Back". Well too bad, I'm still writing that one too! Give it another try in 3 more chapters cuz the story structure changes getting into the main scheme of the plot; As in more Gundam Pilots/Preventors stuff and you finally see WHY the whole Susan/Suzi story is important...
I mean, have you ever wondered what would happen if an unpredictable criminal like Vicious just crashed into your ordinary middle-aged-single-mother-office-working life and decided to sleep on your couch? You have no idea when he's leaving or why he picked you to begin with; but maybe you should have expected it considering your daughter, Danielle, is Mariemaia Khushrenada's best friend after all!
Tell me this doesn't tease your interest? =P
We can just pretend its finals for now, but; like really, I want answers people, things don't get better if you don't give pointers. I wonder if I'm not getting the mix quite right on the more serious side of things..? Maybe I'll try changing the descriptive focus in the next few posts and see what you think. Also, I'm going to be doing serious battle sequences for "By The Roadway"... so you have to tell me which points get just boring and which parts are good descriptive detail that there should be more of.
Woot! And yeah, sorry if this is kinda short, I should have had it in with the last chapters but whatever... Longer posts of everything to come! Now go watch Metalocolypse Season 4! (of which my next posting to NGVB will be themed in honor of)
It was a very weary Trieze Godrick Khushrenada the 13th that finally showed himself on the tarmac late that evening.
By that point it seemed over half the school had shown up to witness the event, Katja's video having been an effective advertisement to draw the crowd.
If Jason had any illusions that he maintained some sort of popularity edge over Trieze, they were gone with the sight of the entire cheer team decked out in Blue and Gold – except for Casey Cassidy, who had stopped going to practice the last week and kept to her dejected self, off to the side.
This was of course Trieze Khushrenada we are talking about here: he didn't merely arrive...he emerged.
A flash of red warning lights and an 'all clear' siren were prelude to the deep thudding, crunching and grinding that accompanied the opening of the massive underground hatch. As the huge steel and concrete doors slide apart, the elevator that moved between the surface and the underground Mobile Suit access tunnels rose up... The HVG parked in the middle with a fully goth bedecked Trieze leaning casually back against it's nose.
His father might have confiscated every piece of jewelry along with the more outlandish leg and torso wear but that didn't stop him from having re-purchased another 13 set of earrings, and a pair of bright blue pocket riddled wide-legged pants to go with his more conservative tight black t-shirt, just to for this occasion. He'd even taken the time to powder his skin white and add a dash of eyeliner; accentuating his already drawn and dead look from lack of sleep.
He made sure to give a congenial wave to his fans before circling around to the driver's door to proceed to the starting line between Jason's mustang and Kevin's truck.
"So," he said getting out of his Gundamium hummer once more now that it was in line to go, "How do you want to do this?"
"Duh, how it should be done, straight down and back. Who ever wins... wins it." Jason spat on the ground.
Kevin nodded his agreement, but was looking more at the vehicles... namely the HVG, he was wondering if Jason's scheme to 'try giving it a little push' would even be a good idea.
With the wide and high design it was easily bigger then his truck, of which most of the 'size' was in the empty cargo bed in the back. Hopefully, the rich kid had something decent under the hood so he wouldn't even have to think about it too much... then again, Kevin's own chrome-stacked-torque machine did know how to get a move on... maybe it was Jason who should be getting the shove?
...On the bleachers Katja, Samantha and Milliardo were waiting as expectantly as the others.
"See that's the thing Milli, you got to stop taking responsibility for him, especially if he's the one who's supposed to be helping you out! He got into this mess, so now we're just helping him out by... you know," Katja gestured to the assembled crowd, "giving his little show an audience. If he gets in trouble, or gets himself hurt at least your here by his side to say 'I told you so.'" She ended with a beaming smile that was hardly reassuring to the fretful well-mannered Milliardo.
"Why is he waving at us?" Samantha frowned at the guys on the 'track', the other two looked up.
Milliard felt his phone vibrate and pulled it out,
"Send Samantha down to start." he intoned. Then looked up, "What does that mean?"
She gave a heavy sigh and stood, brushing her purple/green plaid skirt off,
"Ugh, I hate doing this..." was all she did to explain.
"Then don't!"
"Katja, just shut up." She skipped down towards the starting line where Casey had joined the boys as well...
As the two girls prepared the flags, Kevin and Jason revving their engines to be ready for the drop, Trieze was furiously calculating away on the internal computer pulling his safety harness snugger.
There was the distance from start to the end of the run way, the variables of speed increase over that distance, decrease for an about face, and the amount of time that will have been lost once the HVG was heading back towards the starting line at the maximum possible speed...
All of this told Trieze if he wanted to put on a good show, he had better have been sure about removing all the unsecured items from inside the cab because it was too late for that now. If only he could have had enough time to try developing an air-jet turning system for the otherwise flawless ground machine.
There was a call to be ready as the two flags raised on either side, the amount of smoke pouring out of the truck's shiny smoke-stacks increased along with the emissions from Jason's tail pipe.
Trieze continued to tap away, preparing a flight plan.
The flags dropped in unison and there was an even bigger plume of fouler rubber smoke that erupted from Jason's back tires and all four of Kevin's as they peeled off the starting line... so much smoke it almost seemed like they'd left Trieze behind... way behind, it was revealed as it drifted away, the two other boys continuing to hurdle towards the runway's end.
Trieze tapped away, unphased, keeping one eye on the darkness ahead that they had sped into... the red of their break lights, that was his signal to go.
There!
As the angry red dots flared to life down at the other end Trieze finally engaged the drive system on the freakishly over-powered electric SUV, clicking the panel away and switching the conventional steering-wheel mechanism for a pair of shoulder height dual joysticks.
There was no need for roaring flares or burning tires; the wheels simply started accelerating the car forwards. So quickly that Jason and Kevin rounded the other end to come face to face with the Golden HVG bearing down on them at ludicrous speed... a speed from which one simply does not stop.
In the stands the crowd was on their feet and gasped as the Gundamium machine slammed on what breaks it had and almost seemed to dip its front right shoulder down... going into a full tumbling side roll, the mustang and truck passing on either side of it. Milliardo didn't even realize he was clutching onto Katja's arm.
Trieze kept his tongue firmly against the roof of his mouth to avoid biting it off, holding steady on the controls, praying he'd gotten the velocity right... his hard work, and copious luck paid off as he finally was able to catch the machine back on its rotund feet – already shredding into the pavement and volting the unscratched HVG back up to speed in the opposite direction.
Jason was already feeling the rush of triumph as the finish line raced up to meet him, Kevin giving his last thoughts of mutiny their moment before he let his foot ease off the pedal, when Trieze cut in between the two and blasted across to steal the checkered flag...
"Better luck next time." is all Trieze could offer with a smile afterward; before Jason, with Casey, took off into the night with Kevin in tow. "So... Samantha, I was wondering if you might have an answer for me yet..."
"An answer? About what?" Samantha shied away.
"Will you come to dinner, with Katja, at my home?"
"Fine," she rolled her eyes as the cheer-squad flooded over to show their appreciation for the new hero. "...but only dinner! This doesn't mean we're going out or anything."
"Sure it doesn't." Trieze said with a grin, ignoring all the other girls to give Samantha the second kiss on her cheek that day. 'Not yet at least.' ...he added silently.