The registrar led Terry toward a platform in front of a crowd. He climbed up on the platform and motioned for Terry to join the mass in front of it. The man began to address the audience.
"Ladies and gentleman!" he cried. The audience erupted in cheers. "You are about to witness the first race in the F-Zero AX Cup! Today, we are at Aeropolis, and we are about to see the Screwdriver!" The audience began to applaud. He continued. "I am your emcee, Mr. Zero! Please allow me the honor of introducing the 30 racers you will see here today! First, here is Mighty Gazelle!" The crowd started cheering louder as a tall, gold-tinted cyborg, faintly resembling a robot out of Star Wars, stepped onto the platform. "Mighty Gazelle was damaged in the Great Accident four years ago, but he returns to the races today as a robot!" Gazelle stepped down.
"Now we have the inimitable Jody Summer!" Her ascension to the platform was followed by several catcalls and wolf whistles. Terry recognized her as the woman who had gotten him registered for the races. "Jody is a member of the Galactic Space Federation, and is participating in the Grand Prix for training purposes. We wish her luck!"
"Our next racers are father and son, Samurai and Daigoroh!" Samurai Goroh and Daigoroh both climbed onto the platform. Dai spotted Terry and stuck out his tongue. "They are both racing for one purpose – to defeat the legendary Captain Falcon." Samurai lifted Daigoroh into the air and they both stepped down.
"Next up is Blade!" A young man clad in light blue clothes stepped onto the platform, moving his unruly black hair out of his eyes. Terry identified him as one of the people in the waiting room with him. "Also known as Zane Leonhart, Blade is a newcomer to the races and comes to us through the PMFT league. He likes to spend his time programming role-playing simulations." Blade nodded and stepped down.
"Now we have... wait, is this a joke?" The man peered at the clipboard he was looking at. A lone voice erupted from the crowd. "It's not a joke! It's my actual name!" The man looked up and continued. "We have Dewey Cheatum next." The audience burst into laughter as a man clad in green and a top hat climbed onto the platform. "Mr. Cheatum..." the registrar had to suppress a snicker, "...owns a line of casinos..." The registrar collapsed into a heap of laughter. Cheatum grimaced and climbed back into the crowd, glaring at everyone who looked at him.
Mr. Zero regained his composure and continued. "Our next entrant is Spade." A tall man dressed in tones of grey stepped up, his face obscured by a blue and grey mask that fanned out at the top. Terry noticed that his torso and legs were only attached to each other by a small orb. "Spade is a magician," Mr. Zero continued as Spade pulled an ace of spades out of thin air, "and races to save his circus from shutting down." Spade disappeared in a burst of smoke and reappeared in the crowd.
"Now, here is PJ." A short, yellow alien with bug eyes stepped onto the stage. He was clad in typical cabbie clothes. "PJ used to work for Galaxy Cab and was put on hiatus. His craft is actually his cab!" PJ tipped his hat at the audience.
"Now..." Mr. Zero smiled, "...are you ready? The next racer is... Captain Falcon!" The legendary racer, dressed in dark blue and wearing a red helmet, climbed onto the platform and struck a pose. The crowd went wild. In one section of the audience, a 'We love Captain Falcon' banner was unfurled and drifted in the wind. Captain Falcon grinned and posed again. Mr. Zero continued. "Falcon has won the Grand Prix twice already! It is rumored that he has never lost a race!" The crowd cheered even harder. Falcon stepped down.
Mr. Zero examined his clipboard again. "Our next racer should be familiar as well – Blood Falcon!" A man, who looked almost exactly like Captain Falcon, stepped up, only dressed in red instead of blue. The crowd booed and hissed. Blood Falcon glared at the crowd. "Unfortunately, we don't have any information on Blood Falcon at this time, as he refuses to give us any data." Blood Falcon smirked and climbed back down.
"Lily Flyer is next!" A small girl, about 14 and dressed in a blue coat and cotton pants decorated with hearts, stepped up. "Lily is a member of the Galactic Space Federation as well. She is currently training under Ms. Summers and is also racing for training." Lily flashed a peace sign and winked as she moved back into the mass of competitors.
"Here's Princia Ramode!" A young woman in a red halter top and red, puffy pants, her long, brown hair tied in a sort of double-ponytail above her head, walked up to the platform. She winked. "Princia is the queen-to-be of a far-off desert planet. Since racing is not fitting of a future queen, Princia has asked that we do not tell her father." He grinned as Princia rejoined the crowd.
A man who looked like he was wearing a Halloween mask came on stage. When Terry saw him in clearer light, he realized that the man did actually have a skull for a head. "Here, we have Sterling LaVaughn, or as he is more commonly known, the Skull. For those of you that are wondering, he is in fact dead..." At this, a gasp rose through parts of the audience, "...so he can take as many risks as he wants. Unless, of course, his arm falls off, like it did last year." Mr. Zero chuckled as the Skull shot a glare in his direction.
"Next up is the trio of Dai, San, and Gen." Three incredibly short people walked up to the stage. They looked almost exactly the same – pudgy with two tufts of hair on either side of their heads. The only thing that set them apart was that their color tones were different. One had black hair, the second had green, and the third had dark blue. "They are very adept at gymnastics and can actually use telepathy." One of the triplets had obviously thought of something very funny, because the green-haired one burst into peals of laughter. Mr. Zero glared at them, and they moved back into the crowd.
Gomar and Shioh, the pair that had presented Terry's orientation, stepped onto the platform. "These are Gomar and Shioh! They also race together, much like our previous team. Have fun watching them, though, as they are due to get married to others soon and may stop racing!" They moved off.
A purple-toned, skinny, bald man with a tube going from his head to his back stepped onto the stage, and the entire audience gasped. Even Mr. Zero seemed shaken. "Th-this, ladies and gentlemen, is Z-z-z-zoda." Zoda grinned and started shouting.
"HA! All of you will bow down to me some day! I will kill you all with my carnivorous flowers!" Zoda began laughing maniacally. Suddenly, three people flew out of the audience, accompanied by a small robot and an owl. They tackled Zoda, and Terry picked out one of them as Phoenix and the robot as QQQ. The other two, a man in a red suit, a cape, and a mask, and a woman in a red suit with what looked like a white bikini over it, Terry couldn't recognize. Phoenix pointed a laser at Zoda while QQQ, the owl, and the two others held Zoda down.
"Laugh it up, why don't you," growled the man in red. "You can race – I can't stop you – but you will not threaten these people!"
Mr. Zero spoke up again. "Folks, these are four more of our racers. The superhero team of Super and Mrs. Arrow are in the red, the time-traveler Phoenix is in the white, and the robot is QQQ." The four brought Zoda back into the crowd and held onto him.
A middle-aged man, clad in a yellow shirt that stretched tightly over his stomach and a pair of robotic arms on his back, climbed onto stage, seemingly unperturbed by the recent turns of events. One of the robot arms waved. "This, folks, is Dr. Clash. He is a retired F-Zero mechanic, and even made his own craft. He has also made crafts for several other people." Both of the robotic arms waved as Clash stepped down.
A young man dressed in a suit fashioned from dinosaur skins climbed onto stage. He flashed a thumbs-up as Mr. Zero introduced him. "This is Beastman. He travels from planet to planet, protecting people from harmful animals." Beastman climbed down and scowled at the racer on his way up, a humanoid T. Rex.
"This is Bio-Rex." Bio-Rex growled at the crowd. "He was born from a genetically modified dino egg, and he wants to prove his superiority over humans." Bio-Rex gave a swipe at the air with his sharp claws and hissed on his way down.
A man who looked about thirty, dressed in a grimy pair of overalls and a blue cap, moved up to the stage, looking more than a little shaken. "This is Tanner," said Mr. Zero. "He is originally from the 20th century and was employed as a mechanic. Heh, he must be a little shocked at all the strange people he is seeing today." Tanner nodded slightly and tried to look slightly less scared. He was failing miserably. He walked back to the crowd, seeming relieved.
A very large man in a gray spandex suit walked up to the platform. Terry noticed that the platform, which was hovering, tilted slightly under his weight. The man had a very pronounced mustache. Mr. Zero looked a little shocked at the platform tilting, but pressed onward. "This is Mr. EAD. He is an android from the development group EAD, which also brought you the side-scrolling simulator and the authentic sword simulator. But I don't mean to advertise. Mr. EAD is here to complete his AI testing." Mr. EAD stepped down and the platform shifted back up.
"Next, we have James McCloud." A man with pointy hair (which gave the impression of fox ears) and a pair of sunglasses walked up. He was wearing an aviator's helmet, a tan shirt, green pants, and a pair of silver boots. "James here is the leader of an intergalactic band of fighter pilots, named the Star Foxes. James also has a son to support, so we wish him luck." James struck a pose and walked off.
The next person up, Terry noticed, was Don Genie. If the platform had tilted under Mr. EAD, now it was almost pointing in a forty-five degree angle. Mr. Zero introduced him. "Here is Don Genie. Genie is the head of a line of casinos, and unlike somebody else I could mention..." Cheatum scowled in the audience, "...his casinos don't have a horrible name." Genie nodded and scowled in the direction of Phoenix. He stepped down, and the sudden platform shift caused Mr. Zero to fall over. He landed in the audience, directly on top of a red, humanoid octopus.
Mr. Zero pulled himself up, apologized profusely to the octopus, and began to speak. "Folks, by amazing coincidence, this is our next racer, Octoman." Mr. Zero pulled himself pack on stage and Octoman followed. "Octoman is racing so that he can raise money for his home planet, as well as send his kids to school." Octoman waved two of his tentacles and climbed back down.
A man in a light blue suit and a small, fist-sized robot floating beside him climbed onto stage. "Here, we have John Tanaka. He works for the Galactic Space Federation, much like Ms. Summer and Ms. Flyer. He won't tell us his reason for racing, but I'm sure it will become evident." Terry noticed that John was staring quite pointedly at Jody. John climbed off stage.
"Our final racer today comes to us from Einstein Academy. Please welcome Digi-Boy!" Terry took a deep breath. His stomach was filled with butterflies and his hands were slick with sweat as he ascended onto the stage. Mr. Zero continued. "Digi-Boy is very intelligent and is rumored to be able to fix any mechanical device." Terry blushed and walked back off the stage.
"Well folks, those are all of our racers today! The races will be scored on a scale of zero to one hundred, with the first place winner getting one hundred points and so on. After all the races have been held, the results will be tallied and the winner will be determined. Also, all of the pilots' information can be found in the F-Zero info booklet you were given. With that, let the games begin!" The platform lowered as Mr. Zero directed the racers into their crafts.
Terry climbed into the craft and noted that he was in thirtieth place 'Oh well,' he thought, 'I can fix that.' A stoplight appeared on a screen in front of him, set on red. It clicked to yellow, and then to green. A computerized voice yelled, 'GO!' Terry and twenty-nine other racers gunned their engines and zoomed into the Aeropolis course.
Terry maneuvered smoothly in front of a yellow craft with the words 'Spark Moon' on the side. He sped around a tight curve, but nicked the edge of the road and a small electric jolt shocked the entire craft. Terry blinked. He wasn't used to this. In his moment of meditation, a small silver craft rammed the side of the Cosmic Dolphin, pushing him again into the wall. A sharper jolt permeated the vehicle, jolting Terry. He focused and accelerated to the side of the silver craft, meanwhile hitting a button on the dashboard. The Cosmic Dolphin spun quickly while moving forward, knocking the silver craft out of the way. It ricocheted into a wall, hitting it hard, and the silver craft exploded. A small medic hovercraft floated above the wreckage and pulled Daigoroh out. He glared at Terry.
Terry shook his head and accelerated even more. Soon, he had reached twentieth place, but the other nine racers were hot on his tail. He passed over a boost, but was dismayed to discover that the road was covered in ice. He tried to navigate a quick turn, but the combination of the slippery road and the speed caused his craft to spin out. Terry bounced off of a wall and quickly rebounded off of a pink, three-manned craft. Both of the crafts hit the walls again, causing severe damage to the Cosmic Dolphin. A siren was wailing in Terry's ear, and he was shocked to find that the Dolphin's stamina bar was at less than a quarter of the maximum. A craft rammed him from behind, and the bar quickly dropped further. Terry panicked. There wasn't a pit stop in sight, but one more hit would disqualify him from the race. He gunned his engines and used his special boost, which increased his speed exponentially but also sapped his craft's strength. The strength bar was now only a sliver of health, but Terry could see a pit stop coming up. Suddenly, though, he felt a jolt. A blue, elongated craft with white stripes rammed the Dolphin from the back and the Dolphin slowed to a stop. The engine lit up in flames as Terry hung his head. A medic craft floated by and took Terry out of the Dolphin. He couldn't believe it – his first race had ended with him in twenty-ninth place...