The shocked looked melted off of Takashi's face and was replaced, with a knowing, evil smirk.
He shot straight up, above us, and above the tech head ref. Seeming to know his job was done, the ref dropped down even lower and moved back out of the way. I snorted and shook my head as I realized how wrong I was to believe that Takashi hadn't figured it out.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, let the real competition begin." He announced.
The crowd below erupted. They were so confused the cheering didn't begin immediately, but it grew if volume and strength until it was deafening. With a flick of his hand Takashi shut it off entirely.
"It's been too long since we've added a new Crim to our ranks, don't you think?" He seemed to be glowing in the attention he was getting from his adoring fans down below.
"What makes you think being a Crim is that much of a prize?" I snapped quietly. Takashi glanced down at me and nodded in almost understanding. Beside me, Airi was fuming.
"We've gotten stagnant; complacent. We've let the edge that made us what we are get dull. If you think that we are any less than what we used to be, you are wrong. The qualities that make us can't be taught or faked; we are born with them. These two women have been selected as potential members based on those qualities. Only one will be added to our membership." Takashi continued, glancing down to me again at the very end.
"Airi!" Someone below screamed, which prompted another round of cheers.
"Why are you doing this?" I muttered to Takashi. I wanted nothing more than to be beat Airi, but the prospect of being forced into the Crims with Hayate was infuriating; I wasn't him and the last thing I wanted was to be surrounded by people like him.
"The contestants will be given a separate location where they will retrieve a flag. The flag will have the location of the end of the race written on it. The first on there will become a Crim."
As soon as he finished his explanation, Morimoto flew over beside us. His face was blank, but his eyes were lit up with amusement as he led out two small, folded slips of paper in his cupped hands. I started to feel nervous as Airi snatched the first one, leaving me to daintily take the second. I barely managed to keep my hands from shaking.
"Hope you have a plan, bitch." Airi snapped cockily as she tossed the paper into the crowd below.
Not deigning to answer, I started unfolding my piece.
MAG LEV LINE, 5TH MILE TUNNEL was typed neatly in the center.
I knew exactly what the paper was talking about. The train stopped at a station in the town, but then it went straight into the wild. Several miles out there was a tunnel through the mountains. I had been there one time in my life. The train was running and I was too close when it came by. The turbulence spun me out of control and knocked me off the side off the mountain right in front of the tunnel. My crash bracelets hadn't worked and I would have died if it hadn't been for a conveniently placed pine.
I was going to be getting to the tunnel about the same time the train ran, and I knew I didn't have time to wait it out. I had a small margin of error on timing, and that's why this was one of the choices; they weren't about to hand you something that wasn't death defying.
"Are you clear?" Morimoto spoke slowly. I was jolted back to reality and I realized that he had been asking me that this was not the first time had had asked.
"Yes." I answered as I handed it back.
"If you're struggling to read the location, you might as well drop now sweetie; your death would give the wardens a heart attack." Airi gloated. She waited for me to shoot something back, but I kept my mouth shut.
"One minute to start." The tech head ref called from the corner.
"I'd hate for something to happen to you." Airi's sweet voice stayed in place, but the intent behind her words was clear.
Stay on the tracks. Stay in front of the train. Watch the air current, or you'll get sucked in.
"I'm surprised you waited this long to send me an invitation to join." Airi flirted with Morimoto. He grinned back at her like they were old friends.
Keep your body low to the board. Don't let her knock you off.
"Thirty seconds." The tech head called again.
"If this goes badly, we need to talk." Takashi's voice came from directly behind me, low enough that only I could hear it. He had obviously floated down while I was strategizing.
"If this goes badly? I'm either winning or going out in a bag." I joked at him.
"Ten, nine, eight."
"Don't be stupid." He scoffed over the tech head.
"Four." My body tensed as I shifted into position.
"Three." I cracked my knuckles and balled my fist.
"Two. One."
Z
"Where's the train? Where's the train? Where's the train?" I muttered to myself repeatedly as I shot down the Mag Lev line.
My whole left side was beaten black and blue from Airi trying to shove me off my board. She had managed to dislocate my shoulder with a well time upward hit, but I miraculously stayed on. After that hit brought tears to my eyes from the muscles ripping and the bones jarring I had taken a major risk.
I curved off down the mountain stream hoping it led to a branch that would put me near the tunnel. I had somehow found one and was now shooting down the tracks.
I thought I had even saved some time, but I really wasn't sure.
The course we were meant to follow probably made a T shape. We started off in the same direction and I split of right while she probably split level. I managed to cut the corner off, but she might have been able to do that even easier than I was. I was hoping I was way ahead and wouldn't meet her on the race to the finish, because I didn't think my body could take that kind of battering again.
I was in serious pain from the first time we were together and it was only going to get worse.
The trees above me seemed like they were getting bigger. I felt like their shadow was swallowing me whole; like I'd never get out of their darkness. I was the only living thing out here, and there weren't any real landmarks.
I was beginning to think I'd missed the tunnel when mountain side changed and the Mag Lev line started to go around curves. I breathed a sigh of relief; the curves came right before the tunnel and once I was done, I could get out of the wild.
The sound of thunder broke over the mountainside as I rounded one of the bends. My head shot up, glancing at the sky for any sign of lightening. Instead, light flashed behind me and the rumble got louder and started to vibrate the ground.
"There's the train." I muttered with more confidence than I felt as I dropped my body even closer to the board so I could be even more aerodynamic.
It didn't help. Within minutes, the train was twenty feet behind me and gaining. I had just decided that I had to bail out of its way when the black yawning mouth of the tunnel appeared around a sharp bend.
I was going too fast; I'd either bail and smash into the mountain, or get run over by the train.
Fear overtook me as I got a super crazy idea.
Not giving myself time to get too scared to do it, I shot upward, dropped down to my belly on my board, and set my crash bracelets so they were magnetized. The train slipped underneath me with enough turbulence that my board was almost flipped over. With it magnetized though, it just dropped down like a rock, hitting the top of the train. I had thrown my arms out a second before despite the pain, and I was now being held to the speeding train by my wrists with board stuck under me.
I hadn't hit the train yet when I felt the top of the tunnel whoosh over my head. Another centimeter and I wouldn't have the top and back of my skull.
I screamed in agony as my weight was forced onto my shoulder. Tears streamed down my face. There wasn't anything I could do though; I had to wait.
After what felt like hours, the damp smell of earth and underground vanished and I was back in fresh air. Wanted to be off, I magnetized my bracelets and board immediately. It was the worst mistake of the night; the turbulence and wind catapulted me off.
Scrambling to keep control of my board even though I was blowing like a leaf in the wind, I wrapped my good arm around it and rolled until I was finally able to get it steady, right side up, and supported by the magnets of the tracks.
Not wanting to waste any more time, I leaned forward and shot through the tunnel, grabbing the flag hanging on the support beam on the end as I went.
I had almost made it back to the train station when I remembered I needed to look at the flag.
The words were distorted because of the tears still in my eyes, but I made out the words CONSTRUCTION SITE. It was on the other side of town and would definitely give Airi time to catch up. I was hurting so bad it was making me lose faith that I would make it.
But then every word my brother's or Han ever said to me started coming back. I made myself get angry and it dulled the hurt a little bit and helped me get going. I wasn't some ugly little extra that was going to bow to every word that a Crim said. I wasn't something to be ashamed of.
I was clearing a pleasure garden when Airi dropped from the sky and broke me from my thoughts. Her hit sent me reeling. Trying to stay on, I spun my body into the hit, letting it spin out my momentum.
She followed me, trying to give me another shove, but I shifted my weight and careened wildly out of the way. I serpentine in the opposite direction, away from the construction site. Deciding she'd rather get there in time than shove me to my death, she yelled an insult and flew away.
The joke was on her though. The city's water supply was held underground in massive wells; the biggest one being right under the construction site. Kaede had taken me there to test some of his mods. While he was distracted, I had explored some of the tunnels and found one that had ended at a drain that wasn't that far from me.
It opened with no problem, and before I knew it, I was in the underground.
The air was cold and darkness suffocating. I drifted quickly through the tunnels, wondering if I was lost. I was just about to turn around and try to find my way out when I found the center aqueduct. I was about to start scanning the room for the exit when several hovercam's lights switch on and flooded the room in white light.
It was full of Crims waiting silently on their hoverboards with Hayate among them.
"Welcome." Morimoto greeted sarcastically. Unlike the others he didn't look as shocked.
"I feel like I've stepped into a Rusty cult sacrifice." I blurted. Sporadic laughter broke out among the circle of clique members.
"Close enough." Takashi's girlfriend replied in an amused tone as she appeared behind me. She helped me drape my bomber robe over my shoulders and put my arm through the sleeve like a sling.
"Are you hurt?" Hayate yelled in concern. His board shot out towards me a little, but I shook my head and he stopped.
"I'm okay." I mumbled. He looked a little hurt. "How far behind was I?" I asked Morimoto.
"Behind?" He barked a laugh. "You've managed to shortcut through half the tests. You're way ahead."
"What?" I asked Neela, obviously in shock. She smiled kindly.
"We designed a few obstacles to make things a bit more interesting, but because you took the mountain stream, and you knew about the other tunnels, you missed them all."
"Bad thing is, you would have come through them a lot better than Airi did." A Crim I didn't know threw in. I felt strangely warm at his vote of confidence, even if he didn't know me.
I beat Airi. I won more respect than I ever thought I would get. Now, it was time to go home.
"I should go. Let her take my place." I told them as I started drifting backwards.
"Rin." Han's voice stopped me dead. I glanced around wildly to see no one else reacting. Apparently they knew more about me than I thought.
"Don't look surprised. Your name's been on a recruitment list for years; we just haven't taken new members." Mormimoto drawled.
I felt a pang in my chest as my gaze fell on Hayate who looked surprised at the news. He made me feel worthless for years when his higher ups had wanted me to be one of them. I couldn't believe it.
"Just consider the offer, Rin." He begged.
"Why? Is that for me or for you?" I snapped at him. He cringed.
"We'll have this conversation later. Takashi wants to announce the winner." Morimoto's eye screen was overlaying his vision, obviously bringing him the ping from Takashi. "Leave the bomber hood up. We announce a name tomorrow night."
"It won't be mine." I snapped. He shrugged and started moving towards the exit. The lights and the other Crims followed.
"You should give it a chance." I tried to ignore Han, but he was between me and the exit so I couldn't exactly pretend I didn't see him.
"If I can expect people like Hayate and you I'm going to pass." I tried to move around him but he stopped me.
"Hayate didn't know you were on the list. He was jealous of the way you idolized Kaede and he was lashing out at you and trying to make himself feel better. He had no idea how bad it hurt." He reasoned.
"What's your excuse?" I replied. He sighed and his lips twitched into a half smile. He shrugged.
"I seriously underestimated you, but after seeing you here, I don't know how I ever could."
"That's a nice sentiment." I mumbled as I moved past him, out into the open night air, and straight into the biggest cloud of hover cams I had ever seen.