Under Pressure
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original IGPX characters. I do own, though, my precious Team Delta and all of its members.
Summary: Another IG-2 team moves up and into the IG-1. Will they threaten to replace Satomi as one of the top teams? What will they do to win? And most importantly... who are they?
Chapter Two: An Unofficial Debut
"As you may already know, a new team has entered the IG1." Said Team Satomi's owner, Michiru Satomi, while walking to the side of the screen that was showing the team that Takashi, Liz, and Amy had seen at the airport. "They pushed out Team Skylark after Skylark's unfortunate string of losses last season."
"What about Team Sledgemama? Didn't they get kicked out after they were caught sabotaging Edge Raid's mechs?" Asked Liz.
"Yes, but after a long discussion, the IGPX board members decided to let them back in for this season, since none of the teams in the IG2 had good enough records to move up with this new team. They let Sledgemama off with a warning, and if they do it again, they're going to kick them off for good. No questions asked,"
"Good,"
Michiru turned back to the touch-screen that was to her right. "Okay, Team Satomi, meet Team Delta," she tapped the lower corner of the screen lightly. A picture of two guys and a girl in front of green and black mechs popped up on the screen.
"Their leader and forward is Raven Archer," Michiru touched the girl in the picture so that her stats filled the screen. She had dark brown hair, tan skin, and green eyes. "Six foot one, one-hundred-thirty-seven pounds of eighteen-year-old American muscle; she led her team to an undefeated season last year in the IG2. She actually came up with a plan to take down a team after her defender, Mitch Watson, crashed during lap two of a race. Her midfielder took the lead while she harshly introduced the opposing forward to the track. They took first and second and the other team took third." As she said this, a video clip of that race played on the screen. Team Satomi watched as Raven ran the other team's forward into the pavement as they pass the line going into lap three.
The screen flicked back to the picture of the three team mates. Michiru put her finger on the taller guy to the right of the girl. "This is their mid-fielder, Bryce Roland; twenty-one, six foot four and weighing in at one-hundred-sixty-five pounds. He's American, like his team's leader, but with a Russian background, and is probably the least vocal of the three." Bryce had black hair, fair skin, and blue eyes.
"Lastly," Michiru tapped the corner of the screen to get rid of Bryce, then tapped on the last guy, who looked as if he could of stolen a few cars in his lifetime. He had bleached his dark hair, as you could see his roots, and had at least four piercing in his left ear. Dark emerald eyes completed his look. "Mitch Watson is Delta's defender; twenty-years-old, six-foot even, and one-hundred-sixty pounds and from what I hear he can definitely hold his own. They say that he is even tougher than he looks,"
"That's hard to believe," Liz scoffed. Amy giggled.
"How can he be tougher than he looks?" Asked Takashi.
"Well," Michiru ran her finger over to a small camera icon. "Let's watch a race for ourselves." The video clip started with the obnoxious voice of Benjamin Bright announcing the starting point. The camera switched to the starting line. Delta's mechs were simple and sleek, similar to Skylark's, but less feminine. They were mostly green with black highlights in places. The contradicting team's mechs were yellow and gray, and more block-like.
"This is the race between the top two teams in the IG2, Delta and Savage." Said Michiru, walking back and sitting behind her team. "Of course, Delta won, but the technique that they used focuses on the defensive line, and it contains quite the play by Mitch Watson."
They watched as the mechs rocketed off the starting line. Delta hung toward the back of the pack and let Savage take a moderate lead for the first lap. As soon as Delta crossed into the second lap, they moved up to match with their opponents. Mitch took out his contender with a simple dodge and punch to the back of the mech.
Meanwhile, Raven and Bryce were simply trying to avoid fighting with adversaries. As soon as Mitch had taken out the Savage defender, he caught up with Bryce and together they took out the Savage midfielder without a problem. By then, it was the three Delta mechs against the single Savage forward. He didn't stand a chance. They went into speed mode and sped past him instead of taking him out.
"At least they're merciful," commented Andrei. He was shushed by Liz.
All three of the Delta mechs crossed the finish line before the single Savage. The race was a total blowout.
"It looked like pros facing a bunch of newbies!" Exclaimed Andrei. "That was... that was a total disaster!"
"Yes, but, Andrei, that was only the IG2," Michiru pointed out, "they'll have a much harder time up here."
"Do we know what the full potential of their mechs, yet?" Asked Mark, who had just entered the room.
"No, unfortunately not,"
"Do you have a picture?"
"That we do," she said, walking up to the front of the room and touching the corner a few times. Icons appeared on the screen, and she pushed the one that read Delta. More icons appeared, and she pressed Mechs. Three pictures of three different mechs popped up. Mark walked up to the screen. "Touch the mech that you want to see and touch it again for it to rotate." Michiru explained.
Mark touched the one on the far left. Raven Archer's. "This one is a forward, right? See this," he ran his fingers above the arms of the mech. "This is built for pushing, and it appears that the hand can extend, because of the way the fingers are formed." The arm of the mech was wide and pointed, and the fingers were jointed in many places, and tapered down to sharp points. "And the legs here, they're compacted, so it can spring in to the air. And the body is slim, so it's built for speed."
He turned to Michiru. "How do you get back?"
"Touch the corner,"
"Right," he touched the corner and it went back to the screen with the three mechs. Mark touched the middle mech. "This one is a mid-fielder's mech, and it's more built for fighting than speed." He touched the mech and it started turning slowly. "The upper torso is thicker than the forward's, so it will handle more hits. That tells us another thing--count on the forward to be fast."
"Why?" Asked Takashi.
"Because," said Mark, "it's not big or thick. It's very thin and fragile. If you can hit it, you'll be doing good, because if it's made out of the usual light Teflon metal that mechs are made out of, it won't take much to break it apart."
Takashi smiled, this girl couldn't be that fast, he could handle it.
"If they trust her that much... well, we'll have to find that out for ourselves, now won't we? Back to the mech--the arm is wide, but not quite as wide as the forward mech. It's shoulders and upper arms have a greater thickness to them, though, so be ready, Amy, you might get slammed around a bit. The elbows are sharp, and so are the hands, so be careful out there."
He tapped the corner of the screen then touched the last mech. "The defensive mechs are always special." Mark said with a smile. "And this one is no exception," he pointed to the chest, where the driver would be sitting. "This one is thick, as all defensive mechs usually are. The arms are unusually shaped," he said, squinting at the image. "The lower arm and hand are quite big, and the metal here goes back farther than it should," Mark's finger followed the arm from the hand to the elbow. Everyone in the room saw what he was talking about. The metal covering the arm went out past the elbow, maybe eight to ten inches.
"Is that illegal?" Asked Amy.
"Not that I know of; it's just that I've never seen something like that before. The upper arm is thin, which is just a little abnormal, but I have seen it done before. This mech is built especially for blocking attacks."
"Why would somebody want to do that?" Michiru interrupted.
"It could be a number of things, but I can't pin-point the exact reason."
"What are the possibilities?"
"The defender might not be a fighter, so he or she needs something to help him out. But it could be the other way around, and he's a fighter, but he'll shove. The third possibility is that there's some weapon here that isn't visible, and it is just a strong way to defend yourself if the weapon fails, or until they bring it out. But, like I said, it's hard to tell until I see them race for myself."
"It's a good thing that we're not racing them first then." Said Michiru. "I just received the new schedule for this season."
"What is it?" Takashi asked, twisting in his seat along with Liz and Amy to look at their boss. Michiru stood and walked to the front of the room, while Mark made his way to the back. She popped the email up that she had opened in the back of the room on her laptop. It read:
DELTA
1--Sledgemama
2--Velshtein
3--Satomi
4--White Snow
5--Edge Raid
6--Velshtein
7--Sledgemama
8--Satomi
EDGE RAID
1--White Snow
2--Satomi
3--Sledgemama
4--Velshtein
5--Delta
6--Satomi
7--Velshtein
8--White Snow
SATOMI
1--Velshtein
2--Edge Raid
3--Delta
4--Sledgemama
5--White Snow
6--Edge Raid
7--White Snow
8--Delta
SLEDGEMAMA
1--Delta
2--White Snow
3--Edge Raid
4--Satomi
5--Velshtein
6--White Snow
7--Delta
8--Velshtein
VELSHTEIN
1--Satomi
2--Delta
3--White Snow
4--Edge Raid
5--Sledgemama
6--Delta
7--Edge Raid
8--Sledgemama
WHITE SNOW
1--Edge Raid
2--Sledgemama
3--Velshtein
4--Delta
5--Satomi
6--Sledgemama
7--Satomi
8--Edge Raid
"At least we get to watch Delta first," mentioned Liz.
"That race is tomorrow, and your first race is two days after that, against Team Velshtein." Said Michiru, downsizing the chart and shutting the screen off. The lights flickered on and Team Satomi exited the room.
That Chapter was really just to give you some information about Delta, their mechs, and the schedules for the teams, which I guess wasn't needed, but it's there. It was kinda just so you could get to know Delta... sorta.
Thank you to my reviewers blue briar rose and magicalfairy12! Thank you so much! we're all trying to bring the FOB world to its senses, here! I'm not alone!
Review please! – karatezla