Chapter 2: Grudge

"Dammit, we will not be humiliated in this run-down tournament!" shouted the redhaired Alchemist as she watched in frustration the overtaking bird. "Give it all you've got, Horus!"

The chemically driven bird's pacing nearly doubled because of the Metanoia but somehow, the improvement paled compared to the godly speed of the azure opponent. Soon enough, Horus was left in a cloud of dust, finishing the final mile a good three seconds later than the blue bird who ended up breaking the tape reserved for the first place.

After breaking the tape, Kharthoum finally screeched to a stop. Amidst the rising dust, a Luca bordering on dazed jumped out of the bird and started chastising the bird, "You should know, Kharthoum, that not all birds have to run to have a use. You do that again and you'll be having a nice spot at my dinner plate."

She then brushed the feathers along the bird's slender neck the same way she did back at the stables. "But, I'd be lying if I say I didn't enjoy that."

Then, the crowds.

Suffice to say, much of the rejoicing went to Luca Brasi and her new ride. The stable girl didn't even realise that she had actually done something significant till the crowds had literally swamped her and the surprisingly docile bird.

"Who are you and what is your bird's name?" ecstatically yelled a reporter at the stable girl.

It was a complete surprise for Luca, who at that time had publicity as the last thing on her mind.

"Uh.. my name? I am Luca Brasi and this bird," replied the girl in a starkly undertone as she patted the blue-feathered pecopeco, "This bird is Kharthoum!"

In a way, she won that tournament. She received no prize for it but she won something greater - a proof that she was destined for greater things.

"We still won, didn't we?" said the half-shocked, half-delirious Alchemist to her Horus when they arrived at the crowded fields. She was losing herself in a flurry of facts that couldn't have been put more bluntly in her face. She won the cup, but she lost to another bird.

High above the racing grounds, a seasoned half-bald man and a flaxen-haired youth, both wearing worn-out capuchin robes, were wearing smiles on their faces. One could have passed them off as winners of some bet but a second look at the old man's glittering eyes would tell tale that they was after something else.

"That bird and rider, they have the doublestep skill," monotonically commented the old man as he stared at the crowd gathering near Luca.

"Doublestep?"

The old man pointed at the blue pecopeco and went on to explain, "Doublestep is an intermediate skill that can only be performed when a rider and his bird have completely synchronised their movements to the point that a countermovement from the rider at the very moment the pecopeco's claw touches the ground allows the claws to strike soil with twice the energy and return to the contracted position at twice the speed. More than any chemical, that gives the bird twice the speed than it can normally attain on its own. It's a difficult trick to execute and an even more difficult trick to perform in succession."

The youth turned to the old man. "But it could have been a glitch. How could anybody from this league perform such a move?"

The old man chuckled. "More importantly, doublesteps are usually done for only less than fifty meters to avoid injuring the bird and risking desyncronisation which could slow the bird down drastically. That bird did doublestepping for a good five hundred meters."

And with that said, silence fell once again between the two monkish men who returned to their after-race smirks as they went on with their quiet observations.

Meanwhile, at the less popular end of the finish line, a tournament winner deprived of her victory cheers was brooding over her stolen glory at the pedestal of winners.

"Hey! Over here! Hello? I'm supposed to be the winner of this cup! Take my pictures instead!"

The enigmatic Joker just stood at the second prizewinner's pedestal as the grand prizewinner bobbed up and down in frustration slightly above him.

"I didn't see you breaking the tape in the finish line," interjected the jester in a mocking tone.

This, suffice to say, was enough to get the alchemist all fired up. Nobody makes fun of her - especially when she's at the losing end.

"BUT SHE CHEATED! THAT GIRL JOINED THE RACE DURING THE LAST FIVE MINUTES!" blared the crimson-haired girl, "AND WHAT DO YOU CARE ANYWAY? YOU CANT EVEN BEAT ME!"

Jester looked into the eyes of the Phracon Cup winner and raised his left index finger. A needle still wet with solution perfectly balanced at its tip.

"I wouldn't be too critical of cheaters if I were you. The hiss of a snake often tells a tale that another is nearby."

Cold sweat drops started forming in the alchemist's forehead. "You wouldn't dare..."

Jester turned at the gathering crowd at the far end of the field and replied, "All I'm saying is that what you need between you two is a clean rematch. Just too see who's really faster."

The alchemist looked at the rider of the dark-feathered pecopeco. She then remembered something from the finished race.

"By the way, I've been wanting to ask this since the race, how did you know that that pecopeco was going to come up from ..."

She turned for the answer but found the Jester was gone, leaving on the pedestal a card - a Joker Card.

"A rematch huh?" said the alchemist to herself as she picked up the image of a playful Jester with multicoloured Pecopecos in the background.

The mysterious joker was right; the only way to really know who could have really won was through another match.

And this time - the alchemist was more than a hundred percent sure of the victor.

End of Chapter.

RK's notes:
It's time to get technical. Doublestep is loosely based on the same logic as reverse-pendulums on robotic legs IRL. The reverse-pendulums dont exactly speed up the movement of bipedal mobots but they do ensure that the next step of the robot stays parallel to the ground. In theory, if these pendulums swing at the same rate as the stepping of the feet, it can actually aid in the transfer of momentum from the leg to the ground.