Well then… here's the final part of splaticide. The final celebration. There's a reason I took so long for this: and that's because I was undergoing a rigorous editing session for chapter One of my real book, which I will be naming Switch.
Switch is a full length novel, and as such it will take a long time to make. However, I have everything I need, and I'm focusing on it.
But that isn't why you're here. This is the final celebration, this is when I take the time to thank each and every one of you who supported Splaticide.
Let the celebration begin! To all of you who followed:
Boy Jav
Captain Toon
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Darkford
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You all kept up with this story and you showed me that it was interesting. I thank you for following this story, and I hope that it was all that you wanted it to be.
To all who favorited the story:
Alewar Warinot
Boy Jav
Captain Toon
CastilloBlanca
Darkford
FlamestarLeaderofFireclan
Golderik
ILikePoop69
Jusmove
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Octoling
Punished 'Dread' Angel
Shadow of the Dragons
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You told me that what I was writing you actually enjoyed. I was surprised to see this story gain the popularity that it did, and you're the reasons for it. Thank you all for your support of Splaticide.
And to those who commented, though I'm unable to name all of you as many were guests and it would be very time consuming to run through all the comments and find all the names (Most of which were already on the favorited and followed lines), I want to thank you all for making this story what it was. Your comments led this story and made it better with every comment you gave and every opinion you told me. You all were a big reason why I've gotten better as a writer. Thank you all for your support of Splaticide.
I especially want to thank zIvyz, who inspired Ivy and her team of Inklings and helped to create this story. I want to thank all those in the Splatoon writer's skype group, who were equally helpful, and all those who talked to me using the messaging system to talk about this book. I consider all of you as friends.
And, as I said initially, the reason I hadn't uploaded this for a while is because I was editing the first chapter of my book for the longest time. I believe that this is the 20th or 21st time I've printed this chapter out and physically made edits. But there's a reason why I took so much time to edit this chapter before putting this celebration out, and that's because I want to give everybody who read this story a sneak peek at my book "Switch". I've buckled down to make this, and I hopefully will have the book published within the next year. If you ever see Switch on bookshelves, you know who made it. And with that, please enjoy the first chapter of Switch.
Chapter 1: Viscos and Z-Bikes
If somebody from the old Earth-days visited the planet Viscos, they would use one word to describe it: polluted. Even from orbit it was obvious that this world would burn your lungs; gray and black smoke covered all. On the surface, it was even worse, visibility averaged out to just over sixty feet because of the smog produced by the tens of millions of factories. When walking outside, many claimed they could feel the smog weighting down on them due to its thickness. If one wanted to visit Viscos, they would need a full face mask with an air filter to walk across the street, and one of the main fashion industries on Viscos revolved around these air filters.
The pollution problem made another thing difficult, transportation. The highly limited visibility made any personal transportation too risky, so the people chose to rely on the safer (albeit slower) public transportation system. The public transport was a very rough, older model. No public systems were rich enough to pay for the newest plasma driven vehicles coming out of Elieth, the most technologically advanced planet in the United Planets of Humanity.
Most people chose to walk to work anyway.
But, in the cities of Viscos, streets would often be walled off and covered with a magnetic layer of pads to make way for true speed: The Z-bike races.
For Jace Pearson, it was one such race day.
Jace woke up to the dim, smoky light of the morning sun shining through the fumes and into his room. It was nearly impossible to get a truly sunny day, the pollution made sure of that.
It was a non-school day, and the first race day of the Z-bike season. He threw off his bed sheets and hurriedly got dressed, excited to put on his racing outfit once again. Most Z-bike racers chose to wear a balance between protection and weight, and the standard outfit consisted of a girdle, tightly fitting pants, boots, gloves, and a colored racer's jacket with the team name and racer number stenciled on the back and the team logo in the front. Jace's own jacket was striped blue and orange with their name "Light Speed" and the number 7 emblazoned on the back. On the front was a picture of a star on a bike, and on the sleeves were the names of all the sponsors that supported Light Speed.
As Jace slid it on, he was glad the outfit still fit him, he'd grown almost three inches since turning seventeen two months ago.
Jace walked over to his window, opened it, then slammed it shut a moment later. He staggered away from the window, eyes streaming tears, coughing as he tried to expel the polluted air that had filled his lungs.
"Right, right. Need the air filter." Jace mumbled through his gas-induced coughing fit. He found the mask on his desk, next to his computer-pad, and put it on so that it covered his whole face. The window went open again, and this time his lungs weren't filled with the burning pollution; Jace was able to look out over the Viscosian city of Devnei.
As with most cities on Viscos, Devnei was covered in hundreds of skyscrapers and factories. The skyscrapers rose thousands of feet in the air, disappearing into the clouds of smog. In comparison to the pictures Jace had seen of Old-days Earth and the other modern planets, Devnei was quite dreary. There was no plant or animal life anywhere on Viscos, and there was a nearly continuous downtown area with all the formulaic buildings.
There were a couple of mountains on Viscos, rising up over the skyscrapers. These mountains were dotted with mines that could dig up tons of minerals a day to be shipped out to the factories and then to the other planets in exchange for food and water. And every couple hundred miles, there were small lakes whose surfaces reflected only smog.
It may have been a boring and repetitious setting for the races, but it worked out in the racer's favor as new courses could be sectioned off every season. There was never a course the racers had already driven on in the previous seasons, which made for very interesting races.
There was a knock on Jace's door and Jace closed his window and pressed a button right next to it. Air filtration systems sucked the pollution out of the room and filled the space with clean air.
"Come in." Jace called out after he had taken off his mask. The door opened and Jace's mom walked in. She was short, almost a head smaller than Jace, but in her mind she was eight feet taller than everybody.
"Hey, Mom." Jace said as she walked up and hugged him. "So was Dad able to get tickets to my race this time?"
Mr. Pearson was on the city council, and as such he was often able to get tickets to see whatever race Light Speed was competing in, but Jace's mom was already shaking her head in disappointment.
"He's been really busy lately, Jace, there's been a lot of people vying for his attention on the board meetings. I'm sorry, we can't be there today, but know for sure that I'll be watching on the V.R.V."
The Virtual Reality Vision (Or V.R.V.) acted like a viewing system for those not able to be there in person. It projected an image onto the insides of goggles and simulated the sights and sounds of the area. Most families didn't have a full haptic response suit and helmet to go with the V.R.V., but Jace's father was able to get one from Elieth. It was mostly used by Jace to study the other racing teams so he knew what they did and when they did it, but his mom often used it to just watch a couple of sitcoms and cooking shows.
Jace nodded, "Well, I've got to get going so we can set up."
"Stay safe, and don't forget your vitamins."
"Don't worry." And Jace left, grabbing the sunlight vitamin supplement as he did so.
The hallway of the apartment complex Jace lived in was completely empty save for a teenage girl and her two male friends. Jace recognized them immediately. They were his Z-bike racing team: Celine Ravien, Edward Dessy, and Nick Ranier. They waved to Jace as he left his apartment.
"Hey Jace, hurry it up! We don't want to be late." Celine called out to him. "Did you remember the lock keys? Your helmet? Your air filter?"
Jace lifted his index finger as he started to respond, lowered it, and rushed back inside his apartment to hastily grab the items.
He took a quick look around his room. A desk sat by his bed, which lay underneath a series of posters of some of Jace's favorite teams of Z-bike racers. On his desk was a computer pad (a compact keyboard that had a holographic screen), that was currently closed to conserve battery life, even though he had it plugged into the wall outlet. The wall to the left of his bed (opposite to the door) was a window leading to the outside world. The windowsill had a couple of buttons on it for different controls the room could do, nothing fancy, but very practical. Jace found the helmet on his dresser under his mirror. For a moment he looked at his reflection.
Jace was around six feet, two inches, with a light build. He had a runner's build, which he had inherited from his father. He really didn't look that strong. Ruffled red hair from sleeping lay atop his head, and Jace smoothed it down quickly. As he did so, his arm revealed an old scar leading from his elbow to his forearm, he got that one in a Z-bike racing accident years ago when a piece of shrapnel from a bike crashing near him had ripped through his arm. To finish off the look, along the bridge of his nose was a couple of freckles.
He wasn't very intimidating to say the least.
When he reemerged in silence, Celine had a big 'I knew it' smile on her face. Jace rushed over to his friends and Celine opened her mouth to say something, but Jace interrupted her before she could get any words out.
"I know, Celine. Thank you for always being there to remind me, I don't know where I'd be without you." Nearly every day he forgot something and heard the exact same phrase from Celine. Jace looked at Nick and Edward, who were snickering. "Thanks for the support, guys." He told them sarcastically.
This was his team; this was Light Speed. Celine was a Caucasian female who'd known Jace since they were both little kids. She was a petite girl, but stronger than she looked. Her mother always wanted a beautiful daughter, and Celine was exactly what she was hoping for: piercing green eyes, black shoulder-length hair; Celine could have been a model. But her dad had been in charge of a Z-bike team before his untimely death, and gave her his rebellious streak. Instead of the skirts and dresses Mrs. Ravien wanted, Celine wore jeans and tanktops, brightly colored socks, and her father's leather glove, which was on constantly.
Nick Ranier, the mechanic. He was the most heavyset person in the whole team, being taller and thicker at 6'2" and 197 pounds. He's the one who would shatter Earth-day stereotypes the group had learned about, as his Earth-days heritage was from Asia. He was the oldest on the team, at age 19, in comparison to 17-year-old Jace and Celine, and 16-year-old Eddie, and had moved in with Eddie as a foster child.
And then there was Edward, everybody called him Eddie, was the small back up racer for Light Speed. In history class they'd learned his heritage came from the Earth-days people group living in Central America. Eddie was excruciatingly shy; he wouldn't talk if there was any more than four people around him. Nick and Eddie were foster brothers, and Nick needed Eddie to fix the bike once last year… ever since then Nick had been teaching Eddie on how to take care of the bike.
They'd all met in high school and joined up to become Light Speed.
The four friends walked over to the elevator system and took it down to the ground floor. There was a door to the right hand side of the welcome desk in the lobby that led to a small garage specifically used for Light Speed's Z-bike.
The apartment building was very proud of its resident team, having been a sponsor of them for years, it advertised itself using their popularity among the younger generation. It also gave Light Speed a personal garage and helped supply the team with part of the energy required to power the bike. As Light Speed walked by the welcome desk, the clerk sitting there wished them luck and told them that the complex was betting on a win today.
Jace fit his key into the garage lock and opened the door to reveal their pride and joy Z-bike.
The Z-bike itself was striped blue and orange like Jace's racing jacket, with the logo having been painstakingly stenciled onto both sides. It used eight high power magnet pads on the underside of the bike to simulate anti-gravity and accelerate to a top speed of around two hundred miles per hour, no wheels or conventional plasma engines needed. Most bikes could go faster than this, but were regulated by the Viscos committee for Z-bike Racing, which in turn was under the Interplanetary committee.
It was sleek and shiny; a black leather saddle style seat for the racer, who would lean all the way forwards to make themselves a smaller figure in the wind. A thin glass visor with a projected Heads Up Display came over where a racer's head would be, with speed and other controls lining the edge of the bike. The handles for turning the bike were also located with those controls, creating a natural ergonomic environment for the racer.
The bike was locked to the ground by a magnet, rendering it almost impossible to steal. Nick inserted his key to the magnet pad and reversed the magnetic field; then he turned on the bike's own magnet pads from where they were charging, letting the bike rise slowly into the air.
Eddie gave the bike a quick check up, and determined it to be in working order. But just in case, Nick had Jace get on the bike to test it.
As soon as Jace sat down, the bike wobbled precariously and dropped a foot downwards. Jace jumped off of it before the bike hit the ground and risked damage to the fragile magnet pads. Nick frowned, "Eddie," he said to his foster brother, "Did you check under the pads?"
"I don't think so."
"Well," and Nick crouched down and dragged a finger across the magnets. There was a sticky residue on them from Jace's last season finisher (third place in the Viscos World's) "There, that's the problem. Can you grab a couple of washcloths, Eddie?"
The two foster brothers went to work on the underside of the bike, and after ten minutes, the pads were clean. The cloths, on the other hand, Nick and Edward rid of the washcloths on their way out. They'd use some of the sponsorship money to buy a few more next time Nick went out to the hardware store.
Now that the bike was ready, the four friends went to the corners of the bike and put on their air filters. Celine hit a button on the wall and a garage door rose upwards into the ceiling. They picked up the bike and walked it out onto the street. They would have to walk it all the way to the course, magnets only worked with other magnets.
While they walked, they didn't really talk, they all could feel the pre-race jitters getting to them. No matter how many times they raced, there was always the point where the jitters got to them.
The streets were crowded with hundreds of people walking to the race starting line, but most made room for Light Speed as it was obvious they were racers. Anybody could see the logo, and Jace felt too many people pat his back while he walked.
The starting line was located on the Eastern side of Devnei, only a mile away from the city boundaries. Filtered tents were set up to the area right of the starting and finishing lines.
Light Speed was only one of two teenager run teams in Devnei that could race in the planetary league. The other team, The Grav Runners, fashioned themselves into their rivals, and most of the teenagers on Devnei were fans of one or the other team. It may be a healthy competition for the most part, but that didn't stop Jace from sighing silently as The Grav Runners' tent was right next to theirs.
The Grav Runners' team consisted of a brother-sister duo: Spencer and Carya Jackson. Spencer wasn't a bad guy to be around, with his green dyed hair and laid back attitude, Jace enjoyed being in the same classes at their high school. But Carya, the younger sister at age fifteen, was the worst, most self-righteous brat Jace had ever the displeasure to meet. She was the driver of the bike only because she was the smallest and lightest racer in Devnei; she was barely 5'3" when wearing heels and couldn't tip a scale over 100 when soaking wet.
Light Speed set their bike carefully down so as not to damage the magnets and walked into their tent, taking off their masks as they did so.
"So I think somebody will be by soon with a map to the course." Celine told the group. The races were always kept secret until the day of the race so that no team had an advantage. That didn't stop some teams from trying to figure out the course before everyone else.
Before the person came by, Light Speed had just a couple of things left to do. Jace got on his helmet and gloves while Celine, Eddie, and Nick put on special air filters with radios on the inside. Jace activated the built in radio in his helmet and tapped the microphone.
"Hey guys, are you able to hear me?" He said.
"Loud and clear, Jace." He heard Celine's voice say in his helmet. Eddie and Nick sounded off soon after as they were normally a little slow in turning on their microphones. A few minutes later, a race official came by and handed Celine a race map. She spread out the map on the ground and they all sat down to study it.
According to the map, the race would start off with a quick straightway followed by several back and forth turns that led to the city limits. Once at the limits, the track went for a mile along them before turning back inside and making a gradual right hand turn to a straightway leading to the finish line. There would be five laps through the course, nice and simple.
As they studied the map, the race official walked by their tent a second time holding a sign that read "10 minute warning". Jace saw this and flashed the man a thumbs up to tell him they knew.
"So I'm thinking that I should keep my speed to a minimum in this area," Jace said, pointing at the back and forth turns, "The magnets would slide too much at top speed for those angles, but for the most part I think I can go full blast for the race."
Celine nodded and pointed to a spot some 300 yards before the turns, "Just make sure to slow down here, otherwise you won't have time to do so any later. And don't you dare slam the brakes so close to the turns, if you die; I will kill you."
Jace smiled and nodded, "Don't worry about it. I've got this." He walked over to the bike and started it up.
The magnets on the bottom of the bike fired up and the Z-bike floated to waist height. Jace got on and the bike compensated for his weight. His hands went automatically to the controls and the bike responded to the inputs beautifully, becoming instantly responsive. Nick was a great mechanic, the Z-bike felt perfect as Jace slowly floated it out to the track and got his bike into its place on the starting line.
When the other teams noticed that Jace was ready, they hurried to finish their preparations, it was humiliating that the teenage team was ready first.
There were eight teams on the line when everybody was ready. In order from left to right the teams were: Z-Trio, The Grav Runners, Light Speed, Topside Cougars, CrossRoad Flyers, HLS LTD., and Blast Racing.
Jace took a look at the crowd, the stands were packed full of cheering people. Jace saw several Light Speed banners in the crowd being waved by teens. He turned his head back forwards into the visor and flipped a switch on the side to activate the Heads Up Display (or HUD) on the visor. A detailed analysis of the Z-bike's speed, damage, heat, power charge, and other systems showed up on the visor.
"Okay, guys, keep me updated." Jace told his team through his microphone.
In front of the bikes, the mayor of Devnei walked out with an air filter connected to a couple of speakers, behind him walked a girl.
"Thank you all for coming out here today." The mayor's voice, amplified through the speakers, said to the massive crowd of Viscosians. It was so loud, Jace could hear him through his helmet.
"As the mayor of Devnei, I was asked to introduce the teams of this race for their first race of the season." This was greeted with cheers, the mayor was a very likeable, plump man with a pleasant smile and impeccable taste for good fashion. "However," the cheers stopped, "I personally do not follow any Z-bike racing teams; it gets quite difficult to follow sports in my job. It would be a disservice to our highly skilled teams if somebody with so little knowledge of the sport was to introduce them. Thankfully, I know somebody who has not only been following these teams since she was the young age of eight, but is more than willing to say a few words despite a busy high school schedule. I would like to introduce my daughter, Azure."
The girl, who Jace assumed to be Azure, had a pale blue air filter and a jacket of the same color. The jacket was unzipped and she had a contrasting white shirt on underneath to give off a 'cool and collected' look. As he took a look at her, Jace saw Azure looking right at him. She noticed his eyes and moved her jacket over a bit to reveal a Light Speed logo over her breast pocket. Jace grinned and saw her wink at him.
"Hi everybody, like my dad said, I'm here to introduce our teams today." She had a confident voice, and like her dad, was very personable. "First up we have Z-Trio, one of the oldest teams on Viscos."
Applause.
"Next up we have The Grav Runners, one of only two teenager teams in Devnei."
More applause from the stands and boos from the fans of Light Speed.
"Our other teenage team, Light Speed!" A push fight broke out between a couple fans of the two rival teams before security got between them and made them leave.
"Give it up for Topside, a visiting team from Ras, our neighbor city."
She went through the teams but none had the same reaction as the two teenage favorites. Once Azure finished up she looked right at Jace again, "Now, I hope everybody stays safe out there and races hard. Thanks again for coming out to support our teams."
Azure and her father left for the stands and a new voice came on the speakers when they were safely seated.
"Racers ready?"
The drivers all raised their hands in confirmation.
"3…2…1…"
Jace gripped the controls tightly.
"GO!"
And they were off. Every driver jammed their accelerator down and took off. Jace felt the G-forces threaten to rip him off his bike as he went from 0 to over 100 mph in less than a couple of seconds, but Jace stayed on his bike. The magnets underneath him were launching him towards top speed.
Nick's engineering was giving Jace an early lead as Jace felt his bike gain ground on the other racers, putting him almost a half bike ahead from the other racers as they lobbied for positions. In his helmet, Celine's voice sounded off, "Jace, start slowing down. You've got around three hundred yards before the turns. Take the turns slow in, fast out, try and pick up inside on your way out."
An adjustment made, and Jace started slowing down. He could feel the other racers behind him do the same, nobody wanted to take risks so early in the race.
The first right turn approached so quickly, Jace almost didn't see it, but he swung the bike into the turn. The Z-bike slid for a moment, then blasted forward again. It slid again as Jace turned sharply again into the next turn.
"You've gotta be kidding me." Jace mumbled as he took the quickest of glances behind himself and saw HLS LTD. coming up to him on the right side. Jace gave his bike an unsafe burst of speed to make sure he gained the inside of a right hand turn. The Z-bike's traction was lost and the bike slid violently towards the wall, careening sideways.
"Jace, you idiot!" Celine screamed in his helmet. Jace grimaced and put his leg out to push against the wall without losing much speed. His leg screamed in protest at what Jace just forced himself to do, he could feel his every sinew straining under the pressure, and every nerve telling him to stop, but Jace pushed back against his feelings and kept going.
He didn't lose much speed, but in the moment he lost the inside of the turn, HLS and The Grav Runners passed him, and Z-Trio drew equal.
Z-Trio's racer opened up on the acceleration a little too much on the last turn, though, and Jace slipped by on the inside and blasted into the straightway at top speed.
The Grav Runners and HLS were having their own personal battle up ahead of Jace. Carya was trying to force HLS's racer into the wall of the course. HLS was in some serious trouble; Carya had the advantage on him and the wall was getting closer every second.
HLS, to the racer's credit, wasn't giving Carya any ground in front of him, but that soon was forced to change. His bike was an inch from the wall when he was finally smart enough to hit his brakes and escape Carya. Jace sped by him as he tried to regain his lost momentum.
"Jace, the right hand turn is coming up, open up and get behind Carya." Celine told Jace, "Does your HUD say anything about when you pushed off the wall?"
"Just a tiny bit of strain on the turning controls." Jace said, accelerating his bike as he did so. "It shouldn't hurt us too much."
"Just don't do that again."
He advanced on Carya's back slowly, Spencer Jackson's work on his bike was just as good as Nick's. It was a slow gain, but it was still a gain on them.
As they came out of the turn, Jace was only one bike length behind Carya. They came out of the turn onto the straightway and were greeted with a couple thousand screaming viewers. They were going too fast to see if the spectators were cheering or booing, but Jace caught Celine's eyes as he passed their tent.
"Stay behind her for now, Jace," Celine said to him, "Make a move on the last turn."
Jace only grunted in response, too focused on timing his brake perfectly so as not to lose any time or momentum. There came the turn, Jace could only tell from having studied the map so thoroughly and a warning from Celine; there was too much pollution to see that far.
They swung into the turns; slow in, fast out, using momentum to try and keep their positions. According to a warning from Celine, the other racers were falling away from them, too busy fighting over third place to challenge first or second.
And the two bikes rushed into the straightway. Jace found himself in an awkward position with the tip of his bike to the right side of the back of Carya's. It was an awkward advantage, giving Jace the inside on Carya, and she did not like that one bit.
In the slightest of motions that looked almost accidental, Carya's bike barely touched Jace's.
Jace's bike turned away from the bump, magnified by the slippery nature of the magnets and hit the wall.
"Holy crap!" Jace yelled as his bike scraped against the wall, drawing sparks. Then the balanced went. Jace felt himself fly off the ground as the bike flipped with him still on it.
No no no no! Jace thought. Carya you little…
The ground rose up too quickly and Jace didn't have any time to try and prepare himself, all he could do is hold on and pray he survived the flipping and writhing beast of metal he was on. There were no longer any concepts of up or down, merely ground and not ground, death and not death. Jace could hear Celine screaming.
The clear glass visor shattered around Jace's head in a rainbow of fragments and something rocked Jace's helmet backwards, sending lances of pain through his skull and snapping his head back. His neck twisted and Jace felt his spine start screaming at him too. It was like the devil himself had gone up to the surface of the world to torture him.
Gah! In his mind he was screaming and Jace felt his mouth open in a scream, but he couldn't even tell if he was screaming in the real world, all he knew was pain.
The bike flipped again and again, throwing Jace around like a ragdoll. Jace took a second hit to the skull and his vision dimmed slightly, his body went limp around him.
It felt like the hell around him would never stop, but the bike and Jace finally slid to a stop next to the wall. Jace tried to look up, but lacked any energy to lift his head enough to see anything over the bike. Jace felt a sticky substance drip down on his head and there was a metallic taste in his mouth. Vision blurred and went in and out of focus only to turn to black for what felt like hours. In one of the moments his vision was actually working, Jace saw four men dressed in white running towards his bike from where his head was stuck.
Jace tried to lift his arm, but only succeeded in driving new points of pain into him. The arm refused to obey its owner's commands.
"A little help, guys?" Jace tried to say, but his voice wasn't working. He tried again a little louder and this time heard a dry croak. It sounded like his voice was a machine that had been rusted over. As Jace's vision blacked out again, he noticed a ringing in his ears clearing and Celine saying something in his helmet radio.
The bike was lifted up and Jace felt himself be carried away as his vision sunk into the inky depths of unconsciousness.
"You are one extremely lucky kid." The doctor told Jace. He was on a hospital bed with bandages everywhere. His head was wrapped up tightly and other bandages were all over his body, making Jace look like he was half mummy.
"I know." Jace told him, "How many times did the bike flip over again?"
"Thirteen, all the time you were in danger of hitting your head. When your visor shattered, one of the shards cut into your head, and another inch deeper… that shard would have impaled your brain. Your skull stopped it, but barely. You are the luckiest kid I have ever seen." The doctor repeated.
Jace nodded and tried to relax. "The bike was destroyed, wasn't it?"
The doctor nodded, "They told me that it was utterly obliterated. There's no more races for it. But at least you are okay."
From the bed, Jace laughed until it started hurting, and even then he wheezed. "I'm okay for now, but Celine is going to kill me, I trashed our bike."