==Lap 25=

Chiya and Earl stood in front of the transport that would be taking them to Aeropolis, both were petrified of transports after their last horrific experience. Goroh was not defeated; he could be roaming through space in search of vessels at any time. The mistake the transport made last time was that it took a shortcut through ungoverned space, where no one could save them. While Chiya's gaze was beyond fearful, Earl was refraining from expressing fear. He had, however, brought up his concerns to Seppuku about traveling via transport again, but there was no other option. The three would arrive on Aeropolis early so they could intercept Blood Falcon, as they had no idea when or where he would strike. The general assumption was that he would strike close to the racetrack.

Before walking forward, Chiya grabbed Earl by the shoulder and sighed. He turned and looked her in the eyes. "Please don't do anything stupid this time..." Chiya insisted.

"I wasn't being stupid. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time when Goroh caught me."

Earl began walking towards the transport's loading ramp, Chiya followed him very close. This time Seppuku was the only F-Zero racer on the ship, which meant that he could have the private F-Zero section of the ship all to himself. While walking up the ramp, Chiya found herself gazing at the back of Earl's head with constant eye shaking. Chiya began to tap her two fingers together with a slow forming blush.

"So, uh, Earl... What, u—uh..." The man turned to look at her, she searched for the right words to use, but was throwing many blanks, "Wha- Uh..."

"Is something wrong, Chiya?"

The two stepped into the cargo bay and stopped beside the Red Dove. Chiya tickled her arm while biting on her bottom lip.

"Uh, I mean, yes, kind of..." She gulped and now began to scratch her arm. Earl took notice of this because of the red skin pigment being left behind, "Let's just say that this is a bad time for Aeropolis..."

"Huh, how come?" Chiya rolled her eyes aside and dipped her head down with slight humility. Whatever her problem was, she seemed very secure about. Earl dismissed this question and proceeded to ask, "Were you going to ask me something?"

With a flushed face, Chiya began to twirl her hair around with wide eyes, "Yes, do you remember what I suggested we do on Sand Ocean?"

Earl puckered his lips, "Not off the top of my head."

With much hesitation, she took a step toward him, "You know, the dinner..?"

"Dinner?"

She took one more step toward him and cleared her throat, "U- Uh, well... We're all 'on the level'..."

"I... see..?"

His confused response suppressed Chiya's goal a slight bit and caused her to retreat back a step. With an exhale, she fired the question off. "Might we have dinner? Here in the ship?" She cupped her hand over her mouth after asking.

Earl raised both his eyebrows, then shrugged with a grin, "Nah, let's not do that." Chiya's heart almost collapsed on the spot. "Seppuku hates eating in public."

Yet again, Earl had misinterpreted the dinner proposal. But Chiya made the foolish decision of withdrawing her idea in order to save herself from breaking down.

"Oh, I see! Yes, that was a silly idea!" Chiya revealed a very fake smile and brought both arms behind her back. Earl's grin intensified, and so he laughed.

"You're funny, Chiya."

Earl continued toward a hallway, but Chiya remained standing with two lowered eyelids. "Yes, I'm funny..." She responded with a frown.

Not long after entering the ship, Earl had ditched Chiya once again in the dining area. As always, Chiya stuck out as the poorest looking person in the room, for everyone else wore much more luxurious attire. She was going to a planet she had no knowledge on for five whole days. She had not accounted for the fact that they could be killed by Blood Falcon on this mission, but this wasn't what Chiya had on her mind at the time.

Almost slamming her face down on a table, Chiya released an immense growl of frustration.

I hope Earl didn't leave because he thinks I'm boring. I don't know how to be more entertaining… She soon found herself thinking back to what she may be doing wrong to lose Earl and Seppuku's attention. This was the second time aboard a transport ship, and once again both men abandoned her to do their own things. The only flak she could give herself was that she more often complained and whined, rather than talk about positive things. This could very well play a role in their decision to leave her. The Mysterian moaned and forced her forehead down. Just come back and talk to me, Earl. Or something..!

After shouting in her head, an employee approached the disgruntled woman and cleared his throat. "Excuse me, ma'am." Chiya lifted her head up with wide eyes, the employee appeared frantic. "Are you okay? You're freaking everyone out making all those sounds and strange movements…"

Chiya looked around the room in humiliation, many travelers were staring at her. "Oh, um, sorry..." she chuckled with a glowing face, "I was just having a deep thought, is all…"

The employee nodded, "If you're bored, perhaps you'd like to visit the library?"

"Library?"

"We have a library within the ship. Come along, I'll show you."

Chiya stood up and followed the person, they moved toward the back of the dining area which revealed several more hallways. Chiya was surprised, not knowing that there was more to the ship. Most of the doors she could see had an 'Employees Only' label, the door way up the hallway had a 'Library' label. The employee opened the door for her and pointed inside.

"All reading material is available free of charge."

"Thank you," she muttered.

The worker shut the door and returned to the dining area, leaving Chiya alone in the library. There were bookshelves all across the room. She walked down the room with a puzzled face. Why would you begin to read any of these? You would only have a few chapters down by the end of the trip… She searched for a section of the library that may be of interest to her, but nothing stuck out to her as interesting. After performing a brief scan of the room, she found a small table with books pertaining to F-Zero. The first book she saw sitting on the table was an encyclopedia of F-Zero racers.

She opened the book and found the first page centering on Mighty Gazelle. The page featured a large full body image of Mighty Gazelle and his machine followed by three pages of information. She skipped a few pages, next revealing Jody Summer. She had many more pages of information than Mighty Gazelle—much of which pertained to her career as a Federation officer. Chiya, typically, was more interested in seeing if Seppuku was anywhere in the book. After flipping through many more pages she came across not Seppuku, but someone else of interest to her.

"Black Shadow…" she read aloud. She began to read the very large amount of information Black Shadow had, his character had ten pages—only some of which pertained to racing. "Bounty of ten billion?"

The bounty on Black Shadow's head was the equivalent to winning the annual Grand Prix ten times. Bart Lemming told her that anyone who could collect his bounty would be set for life, she now realized how true this was.

She proceeded to read a specific block of text, "Following the Great Accident, Black Shadow used Captain Falcon's DNA to create a replica of evil—Blood Falcon. Today, Blood Falcon races on Black Shadow's behalf." Chiya widened her eyes at the mentioning of the 'Great Accident', an F-Zero event that occurred in the final race of a Grand Prix that left many, including Captain Falcon, injured. This event led to the temporary banning of F-Zero. "I wonder what Seppuku was doing during the accident…"

She turned a few more pages and found a page on Lieutenant Seppuku. The image they picked for him was small and he had only a single page on him giving a quick introduction to who he was. No specific information was available on him. She was surprised by the lack of details on Seppuku. She read the very brief block of information in her mind. 'Lieutenant Seppuku is a fresh racer with no recorded background information. His small reputation comes from the fact that he was an ace on the track from the very beginning; as though he were never a rookie racer...' Chiya felt somehow offended by this. Seppuku was such an interesting character, making it seem strange that someone would not want to research him more.

She closed the book, for Seppuku had the honor of holding its last page. She bit her lips while contemplating about Seppuku. "Something is wrong…" She thought back to Seppuku's medical record he had, as it also contained very little information, "He has some kind of secret…"

Chiya stood up and walked back out the door, feeling the sudden need to talk to someone about her discovery from Seppuku's medical record. Earl was the only person she could discuss this matter with. She was becoming nervous at what Earl's initial reaction might be when she brings it up, as he may be disappointed in her for eavesdropping on Seppuku's personal information. She opened the library door and walked into the dining room once more. Upon entering the room, her eyes widened toward the installed bar of the dining room. Earl was at the counter alongside a black-haired woman; the two appeared to be enjoying the other's company. Chiya narrowed her eyes in anger and began proceeded toward the two with clenched fists.

Earl, with a very sly grin, told the woman, "So, I'm gonna be a bit tied down this week. But maybe we can hook up back in Mute City?"

"Um, okay!" the girl responded with glee.

"Your name's Maggie, you say?" She nodded while holding her drink. "Okay, so I'll come pick you up somewhere along the lines of-"

Chiya then tugged Earl away from the woman, "Wh- Whoa, hey now! I was talking to someone!" he complained.

The Mysterian had a tempered expression, but dismissed his complaint. "I need to talk to you about Seppuku."

Earl raised an eyebrow at her, but was ready to listen. Chiya was about to spit out what she had on her mind, but at the last minute couldn't find the strength to make herself sound like someone who would stalk Seppuku's records.

"Um—m…" Earl was staring at her in silence, which was only making Chiya feel more guilty. She ended up sighing and collapsing sadly onto a chair next to the counter, retreating from the conversation, "Forget it…"

"You look upset, are you alright?"

Chiya grunted, she no longer had any intentions of telling Earl about her discovery on Seppuku, yet, she seemed upset by something else. She breathed in and found the courage to ask him another problem on her mind.

"A- Am I a boring person..?"

Earl glanced away from her for a moment, then grinned at the back of her head, "Boring? Hell, no. You have character and many stories to tell; not happy stories, but interesting stories, nonetheless."

Chiya smiled slightly, "I guess I do…" Her bottom lip began to tremble, and so she struck her forehead down against her arms. "I just wish I had more confidence. I'm never going to get married and have babies!"

Earl dropped his lips with wide eyes at the sudden outburst. "B- Babies?" Chiya kept her head down in sudden gloom. "I didn't know you wanted to be a mother, considering how young you are."

The woman groaned and shook her head, then mumbled, "I don't want to be alone..."

The Korean was beginning to feel awkward, understanding that this wasn't a problem he could solve—or at least was willing to solve. He swallowed and looked down at her again, then pat her on the back.

"There, there, Chiya. You're too nice and pretty of a person to stay single forever..." He felt even more embarrassed by her lack of response. Thus, he looked away and nodded to himself, "Alright, well... I have to, uh, go to the restroom..."

Chiya remained still with her head down as her friend took his leave. Soon, she lifted her head up and sighed with one hand over her cheek.

Seppuku was sleeping in the F-Zero section once more. The man spent so much of his time working that he never got to sleep. He was a professional when it came to staying awake. Though asleep, Seppuku was imagining in his sleep what he would do with the prize money if he were to win the Grand Prix.

His slumber was interrupted by the ship's intercom system, "Emergency engineers to the bridge, emergency engineers to the bridge."

Two white eyes flicked onto the Man of Darkness' visor, "What now..?"

Chiya was now sitting straight and looking around the dining room, people were becoming silent as they were concerned about the call for emergency engineers. Nothing appeared to be happening and the workers were still doing their jobs without hesitation or looks of fear. Chiya had the utmost fear of Samurai Goroh attacking them again, but a request for engineers was not relevant to Samurai Goroh in any way.

Chiya looked over the counter at the bartender, "Excuse me, is there a problem with the ship?"

"I've been informed that there was a problem refueling back on Mute City and that we're a bit lacking right now. But you needn't worry."

The lights in the ship dimmed to complete darkness, everyone began to panic except for Chiya, who almost saw this coming. She was becoming very disappointed in the lack of precaution for the passengers of these ships.

"Attention passengers, due to technical complications, we must cut some energy being used for services into fuel. For the rest of the trip there will be little light and no music. We apologize for the inconvenience. Trip expenses will be cut."

"Bloody Hell..."

Hours later, the transport began to descend onto a bright ghastly looking planet with an atmospheric glow that almost made it look like a star from the outside. The surface of the planet was unused, for the planet was was one large city. The planet was very similar to Mute City, but many would argue that Aeropolis is better. Aeropolis had streets and buildings, except the streets were miles from the actual ground and were floating up in the air. The ground of the planet was not visible as a dense thick fog covered it, it was anyone's guess as to how far the ground was from the city. The ship landed on a very large platform along with other transports.

Chiya, Earl, and Seppuku stood in the cargo bay, there were five days until the final race. They would need to somehow find Blood Falcon in this part of the metropolis. Seppuku stood by the loading ramp door gazing at the bright and prosperous city.

"I'll find us a place to operate from, you two can just roam the city as you wish—but stay vigilant for Blood Falcon."

"Aye," Chiya responded.

Seppuku nodded and began walking toward the Red Dove. Chiya gritted her teeth in fear of how hot it would be once she steps out of the ship, for when she had stepped out of the ship on Sand Ocean, she was met with an extreme heatwave. Earl walked ahead of her and proceeded down the ramp, Chiya moved one step out of the ship. Earl stopped to see her reaction, she cringed upon stepping out, but then smiled.

"It's very cool here," she commented happily.

"Aeropolis has a planetary cooling system," he answered.

She smiled while observing the magnificent metropolis, "Why don't we just live here instead?"

"Crime rate here is very low, therefore, Seppuku hates this planet."

The Red Dove drove past the two and onto the streets, Chiya's hair flapped against her face as the machine blew a gust of wind at the two. Chiya chuckled at Seppuku's rude behavior and disregard for their safety, somehow finding humor in this.

The proceeded to walk down the streets of Aeropolis together, Chiya was fearing what would happen if the streets were suddenly to collapse, as the ground was so far from where they stood. The planet was striving with trade convoys, which would fly both under and over the city.

"Amazing, huh?" asked Earl. Chiya looked at Earl anticipating a lesson, "The most amazing part is that this is all because of that one computer."

He pointed up at a tower with a spinning machine. It had a similar appearance to that of a clock tower. Instead of the time, the tower was displaying the number '5'.

"How does a computer do all of this?"

"It's called 'Mother-Q'. Mother-Q is the universe's most intelligent AI and is now the sole governing body of this planet. She's in control of the military, government, infrastructure—you name it." Chiya looked up at Mother-Q in amazement, "This entire planet's metropolis is built by that one computer, no workers needed. To this day, it is still constructing buildings all across the planet."

"That's impossible…" Chiya muttered in utter shock.

"No one gets inside of Mother-Q, though. She has impenetrable security. The number on its tower represents the risk level of the entire metropolis shutting down."

"Shutting down?"

"Five means that everything is fine, but zero means the destruction of Aeropolis is inevitable." Chiya's eye began to twitch in fear of Mother-Q's power. "If Mother-Q dies, all of this will begin to disappear; as the metropolis is built off of energy-based material."

Chiya shook her head with a frantic face, "Let's not talk about that, please..."

Earl honored her request with a nod. While the risk of planetary destruction was always high, the chances of Mother-Q becoming disabled was improbable, for it is designed to fix its own errors and damages. Aeropolis had constructed several race tracks for the F-Zero committee, but six of the eight were deemed too dangerous for F-Zero racers and the odds of a death occurring was far too high. The most often track used in the annual Grand Prix was called 'Multiplex'.

While walking, Earl soon spotted a gambling parlor set up across a street and walked toward it, Chiya grunted while reaching out for him, "Sh- Shouldn't we be looking for Blood Falcon?"

Earl shrugged but didn't look back at her, "I have a feeling he might be in here, but I may have to play a few games to determine if he is or not."

Chiya gritted her teeth and sighed, "Just like that, I'm the only one doing any actual work in this bloody organization…" she complained aloud.

A much larger frown then came onto her face, wishing that Earl would come back to aid her in the search. She knew him to be a potent gambler, so there was no point in waiting for him—Earl would be out for a few hours or until he runs out of money. Chiya remained still and continued to look around the city.

Where might someone go if they were aspiring to conquer this planet..? She began to think back to history class as to how nations conquered each other. Since she came from a self-revolved planet with only one major war under its belt, she only knew of the war between Mysteria, Magica, and the Galactic Space Federation. This ended in somewhat of a stalemate, however. I know that soldiers would kill each other over something… Chiya sighed, feeling like an idiot. She lacked the knowledge of whether or not Blood Falcon was bringing some kind of army.

She looked at the gambling parlor again wishing that Earl would come out and give her a hint on where to start looking. Earl of all people would know how to win a war since he served in one. He said that his side won by crushing the rebellion's leadership… The answer then became clear as day to her.

"In this case, the leadership is Mother-Q."

She turned around to look at the massive computer, Mother-Q had many automated turrets guarding the door. It was becoming clear to her now now that if Blood Falcon planned on targeting Mother-Q, he would need an army of some sort. There was no way he could get through all of the defense mechanisms on his own, or so she thought. The question Chiya now had was when he would strike. With five days until the race, the evil clone could attack at any time. I wonder if Captain Falcon will show up…

Chiya resumed walking away. Little did she know, someone watched her from atop a building. Samurai Goroh stood alongside Captain Fortuna watching the Mysterian with his optical device.

"That's her."

Fortuna nodded while holding his shotgun, "She'll take us right to Seppuku, then."

The pirate leader scoffed, "I don't care about Seppuku at the moment. I'm more interested in collecting that girl's bounty. More money in our pocket, and a pissed off Seppuku."

"Her? She has a bounty on her head? She doesn't look like a criminal..."

Goroh chuckled, "Seppuku's interested in her, which means she must be a death machine in disguise. I'm not too surprised that the girl is a criminal."

"How much is the bounty?"

"Only seven thousand. But I think they'll give us a little more if we bring her back alive."

Fortuna did not appear amused by the reward, "But we're going up against Seppuku. It doesn't sound like that pity cash is worth the trouble."

"We get the cash, and I get to damage Seppuku's little gang. A win-win situation in my eyes." Chiya left their sight, and so Goroh put away his optical device. "Come on, there's work to be done!"

Several minutes later, Chiya was in a video store looking at a selection of movies. She was looking at every film in utter disgust.

In a disgusted tone, she read, "Rod and Velma take a trip to the toy store, but are excited to find that adult toys are being manufactured at- ugh, why are there so many of these dirty videos?"

She continued to pick out movies, but cringed at each one she held up. What about the children that want fun movies? They'll be exposed to all of this filth…

The manager soon approached her and asked, "Dirty? What are you looking for, less kinky stuff?"

Chiya gasped and glared in appallment, "Whoa, what!?" The Mysterian flapped her arms, "No! Don't you have any action or romance films?"

"Sure we do. We've got 'Carpet Lickers 3', plenty of girl-on-girl action and romance in that-"

"What!?"

The manager raised an eyebrow and narrowed his eyes at her, "You realize that this is a video store for adult movies, right?"

Chiya raised an eyebrow at him, then soon widened her eyes before grunting. She put the video she was holding back on the shelf while trembling, her face began to glow in embarrassment as she backed toward the exit.

"I- I'll be going now…" she muttered with a disturbed expression.

She wasted no time in exiting the building. Once outside, she exhaled while trembling, then almost screamed upon looking up. Seppuku stood in front of her. She jolted up straight in shock surprised and gasped.

"O- Oh, hi!" she said with her face still glowing.

Seppuku looked up at the building's sign and raised both his brows in shock, then looked back down at the innocent woman. "Well, then. Picking out a movie to watch with Bendek, I see..."

Chiya began shook her hands and head, "No, no, no! I didn't mean to-"

"Whatever. Where's Bendek?"

"Gambling."

"Of course…" Seppuku muttered with anger.

Chiya spun around and pointed at Mother-Q, "After thinking, I imagine that Blood Falcon will be targeting the Mother-Q computer, as this is what controls the planet."

Seppuku crossed his arms and offered an approving nod, "Kind of obvious, but good work figuring that out, at any rate." Chiya showed no expression but was overjoyed by the compliment, knowing that she did a good job. "Now, take me to Bendek," he ordered.

Chiya and Seppuku moments later entered the gambling parlor, Earl was surrounded with other players at a round table. Most of them were giving him angry looks.

"You're hustling us, aren't ya?" a player accused.

With a grin, Earl replied, "No, I swear I've never played this before…"

At that moment, Chiya came up behind Earl and smiled. "Playing Forejack?" Earl widened his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Watch out, Earl's a pro at this game!" she warned the players.

Earl gulped and dipped his head down, everyone was now glaring at him. "You ever have any wisdom teeth pulled out?" one of the men asked.

"No—o..." The man cracked his knuckles at Earl, who then backed away from the table, "Uh, yeah, well, I have to go…"

A somewhat muscular and large man stood up in front of Earl, intimidating him with ease. Earl trembled due to the strength that this man seemed to possess. Chiya stepped in front of Earl to defend him.

"If you want to get to Earl, you gotta get through me!"

The man tiled his head, thus making a crack in his neck. This mere neck cracking caused Chiya to retreat behind Earl and tremble. Seppuku then approached the two from behind and looked into the angry eyes of the man

"I owe Earl a few. So if you start a fight with him, you get killed by me."

Chiya looked up at Seppuku with a disturbed look, but Earl found himself nodding with a frantic face.

The disgruntled gambler backed away from the three, "Fine..." He then sat back down with the others.

Seppuku nodded in approval of the man's choice to retreat, then grabbed both Chiya and Earl, "I found a nice place for us to stay for the week. I'll show you two where it is."

Chiya was starting to relax more, understanding that Blood Falcon may not make a move for several days. She would need to relax for the days she was on Aeropolis. No gangs or dangerous missions; but the anxious desire to get back to the Purring Kitten.

To be continued!