Crash and Burn
Chapter Two: A New President

Bearit's Notes: Yay! This was a hard chapter to write, but I got it done, and I should be on a steady roll from here on out because then is when the whole story will actually begin. Meaning, in the next chapter, expect to see a very familiar face. But for now, enjoy the return of two of the unnamed characters from the last chapter, and the transformation of Eagle's life. Have fun, and please review!


A couple of weeks after Eagle and his father had snuck out to Integra behind his mother's back, the family sat in the main room of the apartment over simple dinners of processed food, for Avella Vision had put forth a lot of energy in tidying up the apartment all day and had none left to cook any of the extravagant food she normally fixed; it was usually the only thing in the Vision household that even remotely resembled an aristocratic lifestyle. Chrysler Vision had said nothing as he slipped into his seat and started toying with the food for a little while, before picking up his fork and chomping on the bland brown slice of meat.

Eagle frowned at this peculiarity. Usually his father was keen on even the smallest details, and for the particularly insignificant ones, such as the change of type of food Avella served for dinner, were the ones that he would make a joke or lighthearted comment about. Today, nothing.

If his mother noticed anything she gave no indication and simply turned on the cubic television drifting in the center of the room, where the daily news were broadcast all across Autozam around the time most would be eating dinner.

"So, how was work today?" asked Avella, smiling sweetly at her husband as she sat at the dinner table. He did not answer; another peculiarity to which Avella did notice. "Chrysler? Chrysler!"

"Hm?" Chrysler, disinterested, glanced up from his plate.

Avella glared. "How was work today?"

"Oh, fine, fine," he said with a wave of his hand.

Avella kept glaring at him, but he scarcely noticed as he turned his attention back to his plate, twirling some noodles into his fork idly. She said nothing more and instead sighed helplessly, and Eagle knew better than to push his father further.

"Eagle, honey," Avella said through gritted teeth, clasping her hands on top of the table. "How was school?"

Eagle smiled. "It was fine."

"Fine," said Avella, clearly annoyed. "Of course it was fine. Anything interesting happen?"

"No, not really. I passed a test."

"Uh-huh." The words behind it spelled dangerously, I should hope so, you don't do anything else with your time. "Any new friends?"

Eagle sighed. Even after five years! Instead of answering, Eagle shoved a forkful of whatever he had been toying with into his mouth and chewed as slowly as he could. His mother was obviously not very happy, and Eagle decided that the best way to answer this dodgy question was to not, unless he wanted to lie, like his father had suggested only a couple of weeks prior. Maybe, if only for tonight, just to calm his mother down, creating an imaginary friend wasn't such a bad idea.

Eagle swallowed his food, but before he could open his mouth, Avella stood from the table and turned on her heel and walked back into the kitchen. Chrysler did not budge, did not speak, and Eagle was left with an unsettled emotion rising up his throat.

He turned his attention to the broadcast, idly listening to the nothingness of what the skinny gray-haired man had to say. A little special on one of the import shops in Sonata, one of the richest suburbs in Autozam just on the other side of the capital city of Integra, a recent burglary in "The Lynx," the ghetto of Autozam that was south of Integra, and another comment about the pollution crisis. Ho hum. Autozam was not a particularly exciting place.

Just as Eagle was about to focus more on his food again, the gray-haired man said, "And now, for a special announcement from Professor Renault Laguna of the FSO."

Avella reentered the main room, standing in the doorway with her arms crossed, her face covered with curiosity. Chrysler's head slowly rose to look at the television, his bright brown eyes wide and his eyebrows wrinkled. Eagle frowned and paid discreet attention to what the renowned scientist had to say.

Renault Laguna, a tall, lanky man with his dull purple hair pulled back in a short ponytail, stood at a gray, metal podium with dark green drapes behind him, his white lab coat blending in with the typical colors of the Autozam government. He wore spectacles thick enough to shield his eyes, and rumor had it that he only wore them as a defense against the women of the public because with his brilliant eyes and his prodigious brain mixed all together with his good looks, he could never get anything done. What was most peculiar was that his older sister, President Dauphine Laguna, was everything short of attractive, which merely acted as one counterargument to the rumor. No matter, really, for Renault Laguna was married to science.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, his quiet, bass voice amplified by the microphone, "as we all know, the pollution of our atmosphere has been increasingly worsening for as long as any of us can remember.

"In the past week, our data has shown that the rate of increase has expanded exponentially, and we of the FSO have estimated that in less than fifteen, no, ten years, our domes will no longer be suitable shields against these poisonous fumes.

"The FSO has been working feverishly for the past twenty years to find a cure for this smog that plagues our beloved land, but we currently have little resources to quicken our efforts to preserve our way of life. That is why I stand before all of you today to request from the president, my sister, more funding to save our dying land."

He bowed and exited the stage, and the screen flipped back to the gray-haired man.

Before anyone could say anything in the Vision apartment, Chrysler threw his head back and guffawed. Eagle and his mother exchanged confused glances.

"That sneaky little brat!" he howled as his face reddened and tears fell from the corner of his eyes. "Going on national broadcast! I can't imagine how the president can say no now!"


Eagle and Avella learned from Chrysler later that Renault Laguna had approached Parliament three days ago about increased government funding for the efforts towards curing the pollution crisis, and Parliament had approved a bill to do so in a mere matter of hours; by the time it reached the Grand Mansion for President Laguna's approval, she promptly vetoed it, for reasons she explained to no one but her Cabinet.

Chrysler had stood by Renault Laguna's side as he debated with his sister, and for the longest time Chrysler was worried that Renault would speak out against Dauphine, though for reasons Eagle could not understand at the time. Chrysler had only explained to his wife and son, "There's a lot of opposition out there." Apparently there was more going on in the government of Autozam than even the family of a senator was allowed to know.

The next day, around dinnertime again, on national broadcast, the gray-haired man returned. Chrysler had not returned home for dinner that night, and Avella watched the news frantically, hoping that nothing had happened during the transit from Integra to Lexcen.

Again, nothing interesting. A bootlegger was caught in "The Lynx," the lovely suburb of Sonata was showcasing a professional dancer from Chizeta all of next week, tickets on sale now, and, finally, the gray-haired man looked at the screen grimly, his lips pursed.

"Current news on the pollution," he said slowly. "President Laguna has denied the FSO more funding due to limits of the budget and the status of the economy, claims a Grand Mansion spokesperson. The FSO has therefore announced a no-confidence doctrine against the president, led by none other than her own brother. More details on how Parliament will react to this shortly coming."

Avella's jaw dropped, and Eagle widened his eyes.

Sure enough, once the broadcast was over with no news whatsoever about Parliament's reaction, Avella cleaned up the dishes and wrapped Chrysler's untouched plate in a protective wrap and put it in the refrigerating unit. Eagle retreated to his room for the night and pulled out a text about the Sao dynasty of Fahren but found that he could not concentrate.

President Dauphine Laguna, as far as Eagle could tell, was not a bad president, and she really tried her best to provide for the well being of her people. Poor people from "The Lynx" were actually being able to go through some of the more expensive academies in Integra, and the crime situation in "The Lynx" had been worse before she was elected into office. Only one crime a day was reported on the evening broadcasts; it used to take up half the entire broadcast.

Eagle's father had not yet been elected into Parliament at the time, and the family was still living in Sonata, but Eagle remembered it. He remembered the decrease in reports since Laguna took over to recently, and it was one of the things Chrysler Vision would boast about to his family. After all, once he claimed a seat in Parliament, there was a rapid decrease to the crime rate in "The Lynx."

That was back when the pollution crisis was the least of everyone's worries. Now that Autozam had claimed an isolationist policy—one that Chrysler was not fond of—and the domestic problems were finally solved, everyone started realizing that their environment was slowly dying. President Laguna made her first mistake when she waved it off as something that could not be helped.

After Eagle showered and before he climbed into bed for the evening, the door to the apartment opened and shut, and Eagle peered out of his bedroom door and down the main hall to see his father at the doorway, his mother greeting him with a peck on the cheek and golden eyes of concern. Chrysler noticed Eagle then and waved his hand. Eagle cautiously stepped out of his room and approached his parents.

"Well," said Chrysler, nodding with pursed lips, "it's official." He sighed. "Laguna is being impeached."

Avella gasped, but Eagle did not even blink.

"There were a lot of factors that went into it," he said, "and we all unanimously agreed that she had to go. She's been around for seven years now anyway, and no president yet has lasted for more than eight years. It was her time."

"Oh, honey," said Avella as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

Eagle kept staring at his father, waiting for more. This could have waited until the morning, and this was something that Eagle and his mother could have tolerated listening to the morning news about, so his father had to be holding back something. Chrysler noticed Eagle's gaze and loosened his grip on Avella.

"Yeah, there's more," he said, and Avella pulled away. "The trials are expected to take about three months. That's how long the new candidates have to prepare their campaign, and tonight we announced who we were going to nominate as candidates.

"Avella, Eagle, I am one of them. I am a candidate for the next president of Autozam."


Autozam politics were messy, in Eagle's opinion. A president could be in for as long as Parliament deemed necessary, and then a function of Parliament, the Senate, would hold the trials to determine, in theory, whether or not the president had to go. The practice, however, called for the trials if only to give the candidates, nominated by everyone in Parliament and could only be someone from the Senate, time to prepare and run their campaign. The morning that Parliament announced their decision about the president would be the day the citizens of Autozam voted.

In many ways, Autozam's government was unstable, but at least the president could not pass laws without the approval of the Senate after being thoroughly constructed by Parliament.

The Senate, in short, was the elite function of Parliament. While the citizens voted for whoever they wanted to vote for to be in Parliament, the members of Parliament determined who they would promote to the Senate; Chrysler had been one of the very few in Autozam's history to go straight from Parliament to the Senate in a matter of two weeks. Perhaps it was his charisma, or his records from school, or his prior experiences elsewhere that Chrysler rarely spoke about.

Of course, it would be during these three months of campaigning when Eagle would understand why. A lot of Chrysler's past had something to do with it, more than everyone in Parliament was led to believe, and more than Eagle would have liked to know about his father, and more than Avella would have wished to remember.

That morning, the list of nominated candidates was extensive (a lot of opposition indeed!), and for a while it seemed like nothing special that Eagle's father was one of them. There was one name that caught Avella's attention, however, and during breakfast that morning she turned to Chrysler with a raised eyebrow.

"Kia Avant?"

Chrysler nodded. "She's well respected in Parliament; of course she was one of the nominees."

"Uh-huh." Somehow, Avella did not sound pleased.

He sighed. "Avella, if it wasn't for Kia, I don't think I would have gotten to where I am now." He smirked playfully. "Besides, she's getting married to Maverick next week. What, are you jealous?"

Avella pouted. "Why would I be?"

"She's my opponent now, Avella. An enemy if you will."

"Yes, I know, I know."

Chrysler chuckled and went back to his breakfast bowl, and Eagle smiled at the little banter between his parents. He thought nothing of it all day, or for the next few weeks for that matter, as candidates refused the nominations, changed their minds, or just fell out of the spotlight.

In the middle of the second month of the campaigns, three remained, including a woman named Fulvia Cirrus, a headstrong woman in her mid-forties who was entirely too aggressive for her own good, Kia Avant, and of course, Chrysler Vision himself. Avella smiled a fake smile and congratulated Chrysler; somehow, even after Kia married Maverick Torque, a friend of the Vision family, Avella could not sit comfortably at her chair at breakfast or dinnertime, and she would take her anger out on even one speck of dust that decided to loom over the top of one of the silver metal cabinets where nobody but Chrysler could reach anyway. And it really didn't matter, since Chrysler was so busy with campaigning that he was hardly ever home anymore.

The Vision household during those three months had never been cleaner, or emptier.

One day, sometime after school had let out for the week, Eagle went past his mother and the carpet-cleaning gadget with a short, "I'm home" and headed straight for his room. The soft hum of the carpet cleaner paused as Eagle passed, but by the time he opened the door to his room the noise resounded again. He looked at his mother, who had her back towards him, and she said not a word, and had not said a word to him. He frowned but decided that it would be best if he left her alone.

He switched on the lights and pulled off his white cloak and set it on a nearby chair. He stared at his bed for a little bit, and then smiled and switched the lights off and pulled off his headband and set it down with his cloak, and it landed with a muffled metal clank as the blue orb landed face first on the chair. The day had been more than a little exhausting, and Eagle shoved off his metal boots and curled up in his blankets on his bed.

Before he could fall asleep, however, the door to his room opened and the white lights illuminated the room. He let out a groan as he sat up to see his mother in the doorway with pursed lips and hard eyes.

"Eagle," she said slowly, "what are you doing?"

Eagle was puzzled. He always either napped or studied after school, and his mother knew it. "I was thinking about sleeping for a little while. Why? Did you need help with something?"

Her features did not change, and she brushed a loose strand of blonde hair away from her face. "You should go out and be with your friends," she said. "It's not healthy being inside all the time, by yourself."

Eagle shrugged. "I don't really mind, though."

She stared at him, her intense gaze burning into Eagle's eyes. He cringed and pulled on his boots. Maybe napping today wouldn't be such a good idea.

"Mom? Is there anything I can help you with?" he asked again. There was something more to Avella's unnaturally unstable fuse, and he refused to see what happened when it blew up on him. "I can make dinner or something, you can relax—"

"Eagle, you need to get out."

Eagle gaped. "What?"

"Come back after dinner."

"But—" Eagle began, but as soon as Avella turned spun on her heels, Eagle knew the battle had been lost. He put everything on again and switched off the lights to his room, and as he exited the room he saw the retreating back of his mother as she swerved into the kitchen.

Eagle sighed and made his way towards the entrance to the apartment, and before he left, he glanced behind his shoulder and closed his eyes in defeat. "I'm sorry, Mom."

It was the first apology Eagle ever made, and it was the only time he wasn't sure why.


Eagle found a virtual reality center in downtown Lexcen, and he spent his entire time out of the house battling against well-seasoned soldiers, and winning. Nobody wanted to believe that a kid could blow them out of the water like that, and Eagle didn't have the heart to tell them that he wasn't putting his all into it; his mother all but shoving him out the door distracted him too much to put effort into the combats.

Eventually the owner of the virtual reality center asked him to leave, too, in fear that the soldiers, who were all enlisted and never went through the Academy, would get all riled up and terrorize the place. Eagle graciously left and boarded his green and yellow hover bike and headed back to the residential district. The gray-haired man on the big screen television in the center of downtown talked about some little insignificant details as a typical feel-good closure to the evening—all the campaign jargon must have occurred while Eagle was busy on his fifteenth round—so his mother must be willing to let him back into the apartment. If not, no matter, he could always get out his gas mask and travel to Integra, go to where the real mecha combats were. The virtual reality mecha were hardly satisfactory.

He zoomed through the doors of the residential areas, and a voice calling out his name made him pull his wrists back and push his foot onto the other pedal. As the hover bike slowed to a stop, he threw his head over his shoulder and saw a boy no older than him, slightly overweight with unruly black hair, waving his arm with a bright smile. Something about him seemed familiar, and Eagle waited for the boy to run over to him.

The boy stopped beside the bike and put his hands on his knees, panting heavily. "I thought it was you," he said.

Eagle said nothing. He knew the boy and the boy obviously knew him, but he could not have been one of his typical classmates who sat as far away as they possibly could from Eagle during lunch, because here this boy was, actually approaching him without fear or apparent agenda.

The boy stood up straighter, his attire olive green of a cadet at the military academy. He had one yellow stripe on his left sleeve indicating that he was a first-year, but no one from the military academy knew Eagle's name. Two months ago, Chrysler had made sure of that when he pulled Eagle out of the adoring crowd that day.

The boy grinned, his heavy breathing gone, and said, "You don't remember me, do you? I'm Aston, Aston Martin. From your class when you first moved to Lexcen."

Eagle dug through his memories momentarily. First moved to Lexcen, well, there wasn't much difference between then and now, except for the bully incident, which made everyone merely wary of Eagle to respecting but fearing him. Then again, Eagle knew about this bully from an incident even before he started to bother him, there was a plump boy who sat across from him…

"Oh, yes," said Eagle, smiling politely. "I remember you. You're the one who always got picked on for being smarter than everyone else. You really did skip a level; everyone thought that was just a rumor."

The boy, Aston, nodded sheepishly. "Yeah, that's me, alright."

"You're in the military academy now?"

"Yeah, I'm taking the political science course. You can't get very far in politics nowadays without having some military background, you know."

Eagle nodded. "I know."

Aston laughed. "Of course you do. I'm working with your father right now on his campaign. Normally freshmen aren't allowed to do this but they told me that I was an exception," said Aston with a wide grin. "Pretty amazing, huh?"

"It sure is." Funny how his father wouldn't mention it, but perhaps a helper in the campaign would not merit much comment, especially since Eagle never learned the boy's name until just now so Chrysler would not see any point in telling him about it. It just bothered Eagle a little that this boy spent so much more time with his father than he could.

"You wanna know the ironic thing?" Aston pressed. Eagle was awed by how much this boy had changed from the meek pushover everyone remembered him to an energetic cadet of the military academy, the strictest academy in all of Autozam. "My roommate is Senator Avant's son." He laughed again, and Eagle let out a chuckle. "I have to say it was awkward for a little bit but I don't think it will be anymore."

"Why do you say that?" asked Eagle, still very amused.

Aston shook his head and raised his eyebrows. "Because Senator Avant is running with your father now. Remember? They should have said it on the evening broadcast, it's a real big deal, since my roommate's mother agreed to be your father's vice presidential candidate."

Eagle blinked. "What?"

Aston frowned. "It wasn't on the evening broadcast?"

"I… didn't watch the evening broadcast."

"Huh." Aston didn't look too surprised. "Well, yeah, they are. I mean, no one really likes Senator Cirrus, and Senator Avant and Senator Vision are the two most popular candidates, and this move would make defeating Senator Cirrus that much easier since your father and Senator Avant have many of the same views on issues." Aston grinned. "I think the voters' choice has gotten a lot easier now. It was a smart tactic on your father's part."

Eagle forced a smile. "I suppose so."

Or was it? Somehow Eagle got the feeling that his mother would be less than pleased. Maybe his father had called her before Eagle came home from school to tell her this decision? It certainly would explain a lot about what had happened earlier in the afternoon.

"Well," said Eagle, "it was nice seeing you again. Hopefully we'll see each other soon."

Aston nodded. "I'm sure we will."

The two boys exchanged a small wave of temporary farewell, and Eagle sped back towards the Vision apartment, debating all the way whether he should wait before going home or just to go straight inside. It was well after dinnertime by now, so his mother should have little complaint, but if Aston, a member of Chrysler's campaign team, was in Lexcen and most likely on his way back to Integra, that meant that Eagle's father was back in Lexcen too and most likely already home. Did he really want to go back to a home with tension thicker than the glass domes shielding citizens from the hazardous fumes of Autozam's atmosphere?

Eventually, he decided that he could not wander the residential domes forever, especially for a boy his age and with a father running for a very prestigious position in Autozam's government, and he parked the hover bike in the shed designated for his apartment and wandered up the stairs to the doorway of his home. He paused and listened for anything that may be going on inside, but there was dead silence. Worried, Eagle slowly pushed the door open, and only the kitchen light was on and muffled voices, the most audible one deep, could be heard. Eagle snuck towards the entryway and kept his back towards the wall, straining his head so he could listen more closely.

"Avella, I wouldn't betray you like that."

"You did before!" Eagle heard his mother's voice sob-choked, and Eagle stole a peek into the kitchen to see her sprawled on the floor, his father hovering over her, comforting her with a steady arm around her shoulder. He quickly spun back around, not afraid that his parents would see him but rather feeling intrusive to his parents' privacy.

However, the topic of conversation intrigued Eagle, and he knew how wrong it was, but he wanted to know—no, he needed to know, because this was affecting him just as much as it was affecting both his parents.

"You know I'm apologizing for the rest of my life for that," said Chrysler. "But I wouldn't betray you like that again. I can't betray my best friend like that, and I wouldn't dare betray our son like that."

"So then why?"

"It's a purely professional decision for the betterment of Autozam."

"Don't spew crap like that out to me. I'm not a voter, I'm your wife."

"You have nothing to worry about, Avella. I promise you. What happened fifteen years ago was a stupid mistake. Kia didn't even want to run with me as a vice-presidential candidate."

"But she ended up agreeing, didn't she?"

"Because you said you had no problems with it. Why did you lie if her being my vice president should we win bothered you this much?"

"That's what you wanted to hear, wasn't it?"

His father sighed. "No. I called before anyone had their hearts set on the decision. Nobody was expecting you to agree to it. I wanted to hear your true feelings, Avella, that's why I made sure to call before it was too late to go back." His mother hiccupped. "You know, it's still not too late—"

"No, no," said his mother more quietly, so much so that Eagle had to strain to listen. "It's too late now. It'll be bad publicity if you went back on that decision. Stick with it." She laughed, and then her voice turned serious again. "If you promise never to… go back to Kia, I promise to be stronger about this."

"I would die before I hurt you again."

Eagle slowly and silently drifted away from the entryway of the kitchen and walked into his room, undressing himself so that he could be comfortable as he slept for the night. He needed to take even more measures tonight, because what he just heard, he knew, would haunt his nightmares and daydreams for a long, long time.

Just as Eagle climbed into bed, the door opened ajar, and in poked his father's head, eyes blocked with concern. When he saw Eagle he relaxed and stepped inside without turning on the light, and Eagle continued to sit up, staring at his father as steadily as he possibly could.

"Hey, son," his father said. "You okay?"

Eagle nodded and smiled. "Yes, Dad. I couldn't be better."

A small, uncomfortable grin tugged at his father's face. "That's good."

There was a long silence in which father and son knew not what to say. Eagle couldn't ask his father about what he had overheard; and his father couldn't act like Eagle heard, if he knew that Eagle was eavesdropping.

Finally, his father sighed and exited the room. "Good night, Eagle."

"Good night."

As Eagle laid down and pulled the covers over his head, he knew, and was forever disillusioned.


Another month passed, and terse conversations around the main room dining table sparked between husband and wife, mother and son, and father and son. They were mundane, they were abhorrently normal, and they were impersonal. Eagle found himself wanting to get out of the apartment more and more, a real turn around from only a few weeks previous. Eagle had to pretend that he knew nothing, while his mother and father would pretend that nothing was wrong, there was no past to speak of, and that they had the most stable and perfect family life of all of Autozam.

The last month of the campaign was hell in the Vision household; it became a regular thing, every evening, sometime near the end of the broadcast, that the owner of the virtual reality center would turn Eagle out, leaving the boy nothing to do but to wander the streets of Lexcen on his hover bike.

It all came to an end one day, when Eagle woke to the gray-haired man announcing over the morning broadcast that the Senate had decided to send Dauphine Laguna packing. All day long, the elections would take place.

In the evening, when the owner turned Eagle out of the virtual reality center again with a pat on the shoulder and a wink inviting him to come again, the gray-haired man was swaying back and forth on the big screen television, anxiously awaiting the results of the election. Many hover bikes and hover cars halted in mid-air, and every pedestrian stopped in their tracks and turned their heads up to the screen. Eagle did the same; finally, the gray-haired man sighed a breath of relief.

"Citizens of Autozam," he said with a small smile on his face. "The poll booths have closed fifteen minutes ago, and the results have been tallied. Our new president is Chrysler Vision."

Everyone in the center of downtown Lexcen cheered. Eagle smiled an ironic smile, and from the corner of his eye he noticed a familiar head of red glowering at the crowd. Eagle laughed to himself quietly and approached him, this redhead boy, who recognized him immediately and braced himself with both fists by his hips angrily.

"I see you remember me," said Eagle. The redhead boy kept glaring. "But I don't ever seem to recall formally introducing myself.

"My name is Eagle Vision, and I am the son of the president."