OK Number 30 - Climax
TW - Heavy swearing, obscene and offensive slurs, violence, all isolated to this chapter.
"And it's lights out, and away we go, as Kallen gets a good start, but Suzaku gets a better one! They're pulling away down the main straight, Suzaku is just pulling alongside… oh, they're so close, as they go side by side into turn one, the two championship contenders are going wheel to wheel through the turn… Suzaku nips ahead, but Kallen will have a better run onto the back straight… oh, but Suzaku hogging the kerb is going to compromise her speed as well and, and- and there's Gino! Gino Weinberg, who waited behind them as they went side by side into the corner, was the only one who got a smooth run through the corner, and he's pulling up alongside them to make it three wide down the back straight! Oh my goodness me, Gino's going to overtake them both!"
Jeremiah ran short of breath for having spent the best part of thirty seconds excitedly screeching at the top of his voice, just as Gino, with the best exit of the front runners, shifted to the outside to streak ahead, before barrelling into the second corner, cutting aggressively across Suzaku's nose, as the championship leader found himself sandwiched in the closing gap between Gino and Kallen.
Likely not wanting to throw away his race on lap one, Suzaku blinked first, braking heavily and putting himself out of the battle for the corner in a moment of self preservation.
Kallen, lacking such instincts, held her line on the inside, before allowing her car to naturally drift out wide on corner exit, understeering towards the exit kerb and trying to close out Gino. However, Gino's nose was ever so slightly ahead of Kallen's, and he was able to swoop in and across Kallen, forcing her to concede the position to avoid a crash. Diethard, having watched the scene unfold, took over from an exhausted Jeremiah, recounting what was unfolding at a rapid pace.
"As we enter the Ferradura, Gino has fought out a lead from Kallen, but she's coming back at him down his inside, and they go side by side, but Gino has the less rubbered line, and he just manages to find the grip to hold his nose in there as- and someone's gone off! There's been an accident in the midfield, and- and it's Lelouch! Lelouch has made contact with Kewell, and they're both off!"
Diethard paused as he tried to see what the condition of the cars were. Kewell was firmly in the tyre barrier, but Lelouch was able to continue, although, having spun out into the tarmac runoff, he was now last, and without a front wing.
"We'll have to see a replay of that to see who was to blame, but this is abysmal news for Lelouch's championship, as he's now down in last place, and needs to pit for a new wing. He's gonna need an intervention, from a change in weather, or a safety car-"
"Or God, more likely." Jeremiah cynically interjected, as they heard the team radio exchange of Lelouch and his chief engineer, which could be summarised as a series of increasingly mad swearing. In any case, the replay came promptly, allowing them to see from the top down what happened.
"Yeah, Kewell leaps up his inside but… he doesn't have the grip, and sways wide into Lelouch. He's ahead when they make contact, but I don't think he was going to make the corner, he was just spearing off it, and took Lelouch with him." Jeremiah observed. "Ach, that's so unfortunate, unless something quite strange happens, I think that may just be championship over for Lelouch Lamperouge."
"Indeed, indeed, however at the front, the fight rages on. Kallen is still sniffing away at Gino's rear, and if she can gain that place she would move into a championship winning position, with Suzaku falling slightly behind in third."
However, Gino was not letting her by without a fight, and was able to, with clean air, carve out clean lines, while Kallen was caught up in his thick wake, skating and wobbling as she was forced to manhandle the car, jostling and lugging the car to keep with the leading car.
It was not until the first pit stops that Kallen was able to stop driving to maintain position and start driving to advance it. As Gino moved to pit, Kallen was released from behind him, turning up the engine just as Ohgi was heard radioing her, with an urgent, yet inspiring tone.
"Two qualifying laps, come on Kallen, everything you've got! Pull a gap now, and after the stop you can jump him! Oshiyoseru!"
Kallen did not need any more encouragement. Putting the hammer down, she delivered positively blistering laps once she was out on her own, setting the fastest lap of the race before, after another rapid circulation, rocketed into the pit lane. Rolling into her box, Diethard narrated the closing gap to Gino, as they waited to see whether she had done enough to skip ahead of him in the stops.
"It's a good stop, two point two seconds, and now she's rolling down the pit lane. Gino is just coming up the Subido Dos Boxes now, it's going to be so close… Gino will be going a lot faster up to the first corner, but Kallen will be able to get a brief shortcut onto the Reta Oposta. Gino, with his fresh wet tyrers is barrelling through turn one, but Kallen is out! Kallen is away, and she has the lead, but Gino has much more speed onto the straight, he closing at a rate of knots, he's got so much speed over her, and he dives to the inside! So close to touching, but they keep it just within the lines as Gino brakes just ahead of Kallen- oh, but he's ran wide! A wheel, dipped onto the grass at the edge of the track, and now Kallen's going to get back at him!"
As Gino bogged down, Kallen, who was just behind, nearly ran into the back of him, however she was just about able to wrench the wheel and flick the car out of the way of Gino as his momentum stalled, instinctively avoiding the sudden roadblock.
"And Kallen is ahead! Kallen leads the Brazilian Grand Prix! Unless Suzaku can catch Gino, Kallen will be the World Champion!"
However, to count Gino out would be mistaken. It took him a lap to build up his flow back up, but the Briton had taken the fight to Cornelia, and was well able to take the fight to Kallen. With Kallen's car now suffering from its qualifying focused setup, with the brakes now beginning to overheat slightly, Gino's gap increasingly closed, and the chase was on.
"Between Kōzuki and Weinberg, the gap was two point five seconds, and look now!" Jeremiah exclaimed, as the broadcast cut to an onboard shot from Gino's Camelot. "We're with Weinberg, and ahead is Kallen Kozuki, as the Briton fights for his second victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix in a row, as Kallen fights for her first Championship, through Pinheirinho! It's so so close, just three tenths of a second, as Gino, who can practically touch Kallen's rear bumper, jostles for position behind her as they shoot through Mergulho, almost attached, almost with Gino pushing Kallen along through the corner! He loves this track, and you can tell, as he's all over the back of Kallen! Can he ruin her day? Let's see, now as they go into Junção…"
Gino dove to her inside, however Kallen, taking a wide arc, was able to switch back on him, getting the far better exit and streaking ahead onto the main straight. Their duel continued all the way up to the second pit stop, the pair of them inseperable. Diethard tried to cover proceedings, as Kallen pulled off into the pits.
"And now, Kallen is pitting for her third and likely final set of wet tyres ahead of Gino, who again will likely stay out for a few more laps to try and overcut the Japanese driver. You can see how much her aggressive driving has hurt, as she has to pit quite early due to tyre wear, while Gino can push for longer and may jump ahead once he himself pits. However, if Kallen can do a blistering out lap, she may be able to preserve her advantage."
"She'll need to have good lap times more than anything." Jeremiah emphasised. "She can't afford to let anything slow her even a little bit over the next two to three laps, even if she loses a few tenths Gino will be able to leave the pits ahead of her."
"And the reason, of course, this is so important, is that Suzaku still holds that all important third place, and by some margin, so if Kallen cannot keep a lead after the pit stops, he will take the world championship on points. Kallen needs to deliver everything she can, however she will face traffic, as cars who have fallen behind in this race come up to be lapped. Looking at the track map… Shinichiro Tamaki is a few seconds up the road, and then, a few seconds ahead- Lelouch Lamperouge?"
Indeed, Diethards surprised pronouncement was as correct as it was remarkable. After his lap one tangle with Kewell, Lelouch had to pit for a new wing. Having dropped to the back of the pack, he had changed to Intermediate tyres in a desperate bet that conditions would change, considering it his only possibility to get back into contention. His long awaited pause in the rain never came, and by the time he conceded and switched back onto Wet tyres, he was already last by almost half a minute, and he had made no real headway into the main pack.
Now only second to last, he was about to face the ultimate humiliation of being lapped by a team mate. Kallen needed him to not impede her, or else her chances of beating Gino would be scattered, and the Championship with it. Diethard suddenly understood the monumental importance of what was happening, just as Lelouch's team radio crackled into life.
"Lelouch, Kallen is coming up to lap you, P2, P2. Do not obstruct her, this is for the championship."
Diethard nodded, as Jeremiah explained "A-and that's the call from Taizo Kirihara- who does not often come onto the radio- to Lamperouge, telling him to get out of the way."
"You can see the blue flags now coming out Jeremiah, the marshalls are blue flagging him."
Diethard extended his arm, and said "For those viewers who are a bit newer to this sport, if a driver falls a lap behind and is to be overtaken by a car on the leading lap- which often happens to backmarker cars these days- the rules say that the slower car must give way. Lelouch is in second to last position, he isn't racing Kallen for, erm... position, and so, by waving blue flags, the race officials are letting him know that he needs to avoid obstructing Kallens race."
"Interesting that the team are radioing that in, particularly with the head honcho, in light of reported tensions with Lelouch, but I can't imagine with the championship in the balance, they want to take any risks."
"Surely not Diethard, surely not. And now, as they enter the curves in the second sector, we can just about make out Kallen, buried in the midst of Lelouch's wake. Abysmal race from Lelouch today, to be nineteenth as your colleague, in second, comes up to lap you. What a sad state of affairs for the French driver."
The commentator nodded along, though more for his own benefit as he remained invisible to the viewing public. Lelouch's day had gone from bad to worse with floor damage, a puncture, and miserable pace in what proved to be apocalyptically wet conditions worthy of Biblical tales of arcs and the end of days. He was visibly floundering, his car waddling through the wall of water, oscillating between nervous skating under lateral load and plain old bogging down under acceleration. He kept it on track at the very least as the pair, now nose to tail, slipped through Mergulho.
"Here they go then, into the third sector. I would imagine… I would imagine that this is where he's going to let her past, isn't that right Diethard?"
"One would think so, but… my word, the visibility is atrocious. Either way, they're both getting good drive up the hill… Lelouch pulls a bit to the outside line, presumably to honour the blue flags. Once more, what a race to forget for Lelouch Lamperouge, lapped by his teammate as they move into the braking zone for turn on- ah! Oh, oh my word, she's hit him! Kozūki hits Lamperouge! Oh my goodness me, she's just ploughed straight into his inside rear tyre, and they're both off!"
Ploughed may have been an understatement, Diethard realised in retrospect, as the two cars speared off the track and into the infield. On impact, Kallens front spoiler and right front tyre blew off, flying about the front of the car as the nose rammed into Lelouch's sidepod. T-boned, Lelouch was launched to the side as his barge board crumpled like a sheet of paper. The two carbon wrecks flew together, before separating as the rear of Lelouch's car hit the outer track barrier and spun suddenly to the right, finally exhuming itself from the bowels of Kallen's nose cone, with Kallen herself, down one wheel and leaking brake fluid like it was going out of fashion, freed to trundle off and contemplate what in the world had just happened.
Diethard struggled to think of what to say next. Apportion blame, perhaps? The onus had been on Lelouch to move out of the way, and it appeared as if he had swooped into the corner moments before the apex, however it seemed as if Kallen could have been far more cautious in how she approached the corner. He had no idea how to call it, however, as he thought through the ramifications of this collision, another penny dropped.
"And… and that means, Suzaku Kururugi is the 2018 Formula One World Champion! He doesn't even have to finish, because as we can see from this camera here, Lelouch has pulled off to the side to retire, and Kallen surely can't be long in joining him. We'll have to wait for the replay, but I'd wager that front right suspension is done for."
"Well now…" Jeremiah began, clearly out of breath, and shocked by what had transpired. "That was certainly a prescient message from Taizo, was it not?"
"Certainly Jeremiah. Let's see a replay, parse out what happened."
They moved towards a reply, from a camera above the action that gave a clearer perspective. Jeremiah commentated over the slow motion footage.
"He gives her space on the inside, he pulls out, and- look, suddenly the closing speed jumps, and then her right front wallops into his left rear. What it looks like to me is that Lelouch, as well as giving space, probably broke early to let her past, and she wasn't expecting it at all. It's-"
"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt you there, but Kallen is now pulling into the pits- the team does not have a set of tyres ready and that does seem to imply- yes, yes they're not working on the car, yes it seems Kallen is now officially out of the Brazilian Grand Prix. Where's Lelouch?"
"He's driven a bit beyond… he's not at the first corner, I can see from our commentary box. He's- ah, the camera's caught him, he's parked up on the inside of the Reta Oposta."
"Smart move, keeps the car on the inside of the track for easy recovery. Still, there's a lot of debris at turn one, so I'd imagine a safety car is not that far away."
Diethard shook his head as the camera followed Suzaku, who continued to drive without celebration as if unaware of the news. He was a deserving champion, but this was not a preferable turn of events.
"I must say, that's an awfully sad way for the World Championship to be decided, as Kallen is wheeled back into the garage. Suzaku is your new World Champion, and Lelouch, who began this race a point ahead of Kallen, will retain second place. Now, you can see that front end on Kallens car as she pulls in, the whole suspension mechanism was torn from its mountings. It's a miracle the wheel remained attached, such is the rigorous safety requirements for these cars."
Diethard paused, however Jeremiah was quick to follow up on this note.
"Of course, I'm not sure what levity these technical details may bring to a surely emotional Kallen Kozūki, who is now out of contention for the championship, and getting out of the car. Look, she's just hurled the wheel out of her car across the garage, oh dear. What words can possibly come close to relieving her… I certainly don't know the answer."
They were silent, as Kallen, visibly irate, incensed, apoplectic, livid, incandescent, hopping mad, and a thousand other adjectives, roared violently beyond their ability to hear, as Jeremiah shook his head, and narrated the scene further.
"I can confirm she is now out of the car, and according to people on the ground, she is absolutely furious. There she is now, we can see her, she's storming out of the garage. She's going straight to the stewards, no doubt, and she may have a case to make, as she storms down the pit lane. She'll be going right to them and demanding justice. You can make her out there, she's just ripped off her balaclava, the red hair, she is positively beside herself, marching down to talk to the... She's- she's gone past the tower, she's gone past the stewards, where is she going?"
Both commentators were at a loss for words for some time as she marched through the infield like a woman on a mission, however it was Diethard that broke the silence.
"Just, as a note, I'm getting word from our pit lane reporter who cannot emphasize enough how cross she is. She's after shouting at someone, she's being chased by engineers and all sorts, where is… she's going down turn- oh, oh oh, she's going to Lamperouge! She's going straight to Lelouch at the exit of turn one! Goodness me!"
Lelouch was still sat at the perimeter of the track, gazing at the passing train of cars lined up behind the safety car when Kallen hollered his name with all the rage any human could inject into a centimeter and a half of vocal cord, and he had only just just turned back around to face her when she delivered the mother of all sucker punches straight into the centre of his face.
Brutally satisfyingly, it landed right on the apex of his proud, narrow nose, exploding it into a faint red mist whose ambient glory was amplified by the hot rain. Lelouch flinched back, clutching the bloody remains of his nose, broken in one mammoth strike.
What followed from Lelouch may have been an expletive, but with his nose drowned in blood and his mouth in the grips of his paws, Kallen couldn't tell, nor did she care to tell. She had plenty of things she wanted to say, and given the adrenaline pumping through her body, much of it came out all at once.
"What the fuck- you asshole, why did you, you brake checked me before the braking zone you sack of shit! Do you have any idea what the hell you just did you inbred frog? What the hell, you, braking, the fuck?"
Kallen seemed prepared to go on for some time in this incoherent manner, however as Lelouch turned back towards her, one arm extended limply, she saw red, and delivered a second vicious slug to his tall cheekbone, protruding like a target. She felt her knuckles wound slightly off the bone, but she doubted the thump hurt her as much as it did Lelouch, who recoiled back, collapsing onto his behind as he roared in pain. Eager to avoid more pain, Lelouch tried to curl up into a ball and protect his head, cradling his skull with his hands. However, he was not quick enough to prevent Kallen from availing of an opportunity to deliver a boot to the side of his head, stomping his temple with her heel.
"This was for the Championship, yea? You miserable cheat, you crashed into me to save your second place. You knew your pathetic ass wasn't good enough, dicking about in nineteenth, not a chance or a hope, and thought you could endanger both our lives for a few thousand quid. Is it worth it you psycho? Is it fucking worth it?"
This line of inquiry continued for some time from Kallen, accompanied by repeated kicks to his side, the toe of her boot ramming into the whimpering man's gut. Again and again, she struck at his exposed vitals with vicious strikes, toe-bogging his liver before stamping at his skull again with her heel. It was an utterly one sided beating, as she repeatedly battered the pathetic figure, crumpled on the grass. Lelouch did not, and indeed could not respond beyond increasingly garbled pleas for help, which eventually came as marshalls rushed to apprehend Kallen, grabbing her from behind by the arms and pulling her away from her bloody victim. She writhed, but quickly was restrained. She was still apoplectic, but realizing that she was physically outmatched by what was now five marshalls, she elected to simply shoot vicious daggers into Lelouch's crumpled form, incandescent in a more contained, focused way. There would almost certainly be consequences for her, but Lelouch had to learn his lesson.
Of course, she doubted everyone else would see it that way.
She was eventually hauled to a back room in the FIA building, kept alone as the authorities attempted to unpack what they should do. She had an injection of amused pride in discovering she had made the local news, displayed on a fuzzy CRT television in the top corner of the room. Apparently, Lelouch was being helicoptered away for medical attention after Kallens beating, with medics suspecting a damaged liver from the kick, not to mention his facial damage. He would live.
Her fate was another matter, which became apparent as Naoto entered the room, hair standing on ends from a nervous sweat and visible rage. His limp had been left behind some time ago, and his voice, croaky and just about audible, seemed to be joining it.
"What on Earth got into you? Jesus, your career is over! What the hell did you just do?"
~Eth0