The Ballad of Team Black Egg


Author Junk- Its been way too long, I know and I've got no good excuses. I'd like to reward you all for your patience or whatever with in awesome chapter, but...

Here's some cameo fluff instead!


Kale looked out from above her arms which rested atop her knees. She had given up on trying to learn about her father from the gaming system hours ago. She already knew the man was a bit childish. What else could it possibly teach her?

Behind her, the youngest daughter of the Deddler clan sat, still reading. Or that was at least what Kale thought.

"Are you worried about your race against your father's team?" The blonde said suddenly.

The dark-haired girl made an affirmative sound from behind her arms.

"Don't stress yourself, whatever happens, happens."

Kale sat up slightly more with a smile beginning to grow on her face, "Smart and beautiful? Where did they find you?"

The blonde laughed cheerfully, "You were the one who has had me reading about philosophy all day."

They both smiled and there was silence for a few moments. A thought came into the Black Egg pilot's mind, "Why didn't your sister join The Chalice?"

"Jacqueline offered, but she declined."

Kale laughed at this. She figured it had to do with her growing dislike of Team Wild Jack's Forward.

"So, then why did you join?"

Veronica sighed quietly, "Not all of us can be as confident in their abilities as my sister…"


Kale sat in her IG Machine and pressed a few button idly.

"Check the right arm, would you?" Kale called out to one of the mechanics. The greasy and hairy, but all the same, handsome, young man gave her the affirmative and rushed off.

The somewhat troubled youth slumped back into the seat and sighed. The thought of the blue and white gaming system floated into her mind. She pulled it from her pocket and turned it on.

She remembered again why she had given up on it as she once again saw the words "Game Over" on the screen. She was about to turn it off when she heard a voice.

"Ey! State your name and business." A high-pitched voice erupted from seemingly nowhere.

Kale looked around, but saw no one, "I don't—"

"Pssh, another dumb human. Down here."

The spiky-haired girl looked back at the animated screen in time to see the letters L, U, C and A flash on the screen one after the other.

"Luca? That's—"

"Huh? You know me? This is unexpected almost as unexpected as seeing anyone playing this game anymore."

A pixelated cat walked across the screen and sat down in the middle and looked around. "Wait a second, this is the loudmouth boy's game. How did you get your paws on it?"

Kale stared in disbelief as the cat-like visage talked to her. She had seen things like holograms and artificial intelligence and sometimes the two combined, but never something like this.

"A-Amy… Amy Stapleton gave it to me." The pilot yammered to the talking portable she held in her hands.

"Please tell me you're talking about some other Amy Stapleton, and not my Amy Stapleton."

"Your Amy Stapleton?"

"Yeah, my Amy Stapleton, I've even got her copyrighted. What do you want anyway?"

"Y-you started talking to me,"

"Ah yes, the infinite boredom that comes with living in a programmed universe for several years. Even with my feline apathy, I was no match for a boredom that overpowering. Never mention it again."

"I-I didn't…"

"Riiiiiight, who did you say you were again?"

"K-Kale, Kale Ricarro."

"Well let's go ahead and put that on the board for huge coincidences today. So, what's your relation to the loud, tall one?"

"If you're talking about Liz Ricarro, I'm her daughter."

"So it's been that long, eh? From your voice, you have to be at least sixteen or seventeen right? Not like I pride myself on being able to guess the ages of humans. It just comes with having the ability to contain surreal amounts of information in my digital brain."

"So… you're the Luca."

"Well if there any other cats around there claiming to be, then I can assure you that they're fakes. I'm Luca, the Luca. The Luca who's been bored out of his digital mind for over a decade it would seem."

"His? You're a boy cat? Your voice is so…"

"You try sounding manly when your vocal chords are about the size of a straw."

"I don't suppose the size of your vocal cords matter to a digital cat…"

"Boy, you're a tough crowd. Is there anyone else to talk to around there? In this… what is it? A cockpit? Yup definitely a cockpit, I'd never forget those sounds. Kind of ironic that I'd talk to you in the cockpit of an IG machine, no? We're starting quite a list of coincidences here."

"Who exactly did you have in mind? To talk to I mean… I could take you to where Miss Stapleton is, if you want."

"No, that's okay, the last time I tried to talk to her in this form, she freaked out. I suppose my physical body had been long dead by that time. Just give me someone smart to talk to."


"Hey Mel, what do you know about Luca?" Kale asked as she looked into the cockpit of the pilot who seemed to be having a lot easier time fine-tuning her mech than she had.

"Oh, wha? The cat?" The girl asked, somewhat stunned that her team-captain had come to her so suddenly when they hadn't talked since their race with White Snow. The taller teenager nodded and Amelia noticed something in her hand that although dusty, contrasted sharply with what she was wearing.

"Uh… He was a cat. He was the partner of Amy Stapleton who was Midfielder for Team Satomi. He was regarded as being a huge help back when the original Team White Snow caused them some problems. Other that that not much, why?"

"He wants to talk to you," Kale said as she handed the girl the plastic device.


"So you downloaded your mind into this video game's online database?" Amelia repeated thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I had some free time so I figured, 'What the heck?'"

Amelia nodded with accompanying vocals. Kale watched her from outside the cockpit as she had a much easier time getting information out of the creature.

"I also downloaded the exact characteristics of my body into here as well. So if you ever need a racing partner, I can download my mind into some kind of hologram generator and maybe we can convince some people that I'm a real cat."

"Actually, the current IGPX rules are much more lenient on racers with Artificial Intelligence and devices resembling it. On that logic, they can't possibly not accept a program that is the exact copy of the mind of an animal… I think. At any rate they'd have to check you for any secret programs so they know we aren't cheating."

"I'm not letting just anyone go looking through my data files, do you unde—"

"What's going on over here?" Rye asked as he appeared on the other side of the Midfielder's cockpit, "Is Kale bothering you?"

"No, she isn't. In fact we were just discussing how I might be getting a new partner to race with. That is… if Kale says its okay." Amelia told her quasi lover, and then turned her team-captain.

"Huh, oh yeah sure, if it's good enough for a champion pilot its good enough for Team Black Egg."

"Team Black Egg?" Luca asked in about the most startled you could get from someone so normally apathetic, "That team is still around? I thought they fell of the face of the earth."

"They did…" Rye told him.

Next Time: Rye