CHAPTER 4
 Breaking News

I had to wake up. I couldn't keep on faking this sleep when the sun was practically giving me a sunburn on my eyelids. But I so didn't want to open my eyes and face reality. Because that would mean I had to do something. And I was too lazy to do anything today. It was just one of those days, you know?

I was abnormally tired. What had I been doing yesterday? I dunno.

There was something important that I had to do today. I forgot. So now that I forgot, it was okay to sleep in.

I stretched, keeping my eyes closed, and threw back my hands behind my head. It didn't work out as smooth as I had planned. My hands rammed into the wall behind me and my eyes flew open as I groaned. The sun eagerly sought to make my now open eyes hurt. I sat up, rubbed my head, and then turned around to glare at that stupid wall.

Only to find that it wasn't the conventional wall in my room. The walls here were blue and silver and there was practically no furniture in this room except for the bed I was sitting in. Well, there was a little table on top of which held my stereo and digital alarm clock. At least that was something familiar. Then there were the sliding doors that were to the closet. Not familiar.

Suddenly I remembered. I wasn't at home. No, I was at Team Platinum headquarters, in the room they had prepared for me, since I wasn't one of those lucky ones with a home in this town. Come to think of it, all of us from Team Platinum and crew were probably sleeping at headquarters. Because all of us were far, far from home.

And there was no way my parents would spend that much money just to buy me a nice house to stay at when racing season was on. My dad was already yak yak yak I am angry with you yak yak about me choosing racing as a career.

Thinking of racing reminded me of what I did yesterday, on the track, with Skylark. Still sitting in bed, I did a short and subdued victory dance. Go me, go me…

And then I remembered what I was supposed to do today. Watch the race between Satomi and Sledge Mamma. Aww…I couldn't believe I forgot. I had been looking forward to this one. Both River and Takeshi were really good (not as good as me, of course).

With that in mind, I flung myself out of bed, my sheets flying up as I pushed them away from me. Besides, I had wanted to walk around on the track a little bit in the freshness of morning. I glanced at the clock as I opened my closet door. It was a little past seven-thirty. Oh, good. I still had time.

---zoOM---

The new day's sun was much more friendly out on the track. It was cheery, sending down pretty golden light from the heavens, a perfect compliment for the fresh blue sky. I walked onto the asphalt, my hands in my sweatshirt pocket. It was a bit chilly out, but it was beautiful.

I remembered yesterday and remembered the victory. Remembered the fans. I looked toward the empty stands. Those will be filled again today. I remembered the feeling; it felt good. Except, something nagged me there. The feeling department.

As I walked along, looking down at my black Converse shoes every once in a while, I finally pinpointed what it was. Addy. It was Addy. When she was yelling at us to communicate. That bugged me. We weren't perfect. We pulled it out against Skylark, but we weren't perfect. Not even close.

Come to think of it, she hadn't seemed thrilled later when we had our small team party. No, she'd been kind of like me. Faking it.

The sound was barely there. It was a tiny little scuffle. A scuffle that told me that somebody else had stepped onto the track and that I was no longer alone. I turned, squinting my eyes against the sun and wishing that I had been smart and brought sunglasses. Finally I took a hand out of my sweatshirt pocket and held it up to block the sun. And there, standing and looking at me, was Takeshi Jin.

He was gazing at me with a little curiosity and a little blankness. He watched as I stepped toward him a little bit.

"Takeshi Jin of Team Satomi," I finally greeted him. I smiled and he smiled.

"Lotus Carmarand of Team Platinum," he responded. Slowly, he took out a hand from a pocket of the red jacket he was wearing and extended it. I took it and we shook hands slowly. Then we both turned and looked out at the track. "You guys did good yesterday."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

I don't. "Well, thanks. That means a lot coming from you. I'm sorry about beating your girlfriend though."

"Oh, um…she isn't…uh…not anymore…" he said, turning away even more and suddenly fumbling for words. I knew immediately I had made a mistake. I mentally hit myself.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Forget I said that," I said quickly. We fell into a lapse of silence before I tried to amend things with a lame joke, "I guess I don't really keep up with celebrity news."

"It's okay. I'm kind of glad you don't keep up with celebrity news. It's really tiring, getting chased around by so many strangers that think they know you." Everyone thinks that Takeshi is just a regular teenager, I suddenly thought, as I listened to his words and turned to glance at him, but he really isn't. He really knows what he's doing. "Anyway, we broke up last season, before our race."

"That must have been tough," I said without thinking. I watched as Takeshi gazed up at the sky and gave a small smile to it.

"No. It was just unexpected. You learn to deal with these kind of things, just like you gain experience from racing out here on the track." He turned his head to look at me suddenly, as if he was afraid that I was laughing at what he said. I just gazed intently back at him. He sighed and looked at the ground, the sigh almost sounding like it was from relief. "Anyway, thanks for listening to me. I better get going, though. I've got a big race today."

I smiled. "You better win. I'm going to be watching you and learning."

"Does that mean you're rooting for Satomi?" he asked me, walking backwards toward the track entrance, grinning.

"Maybe," I grinned back. Suddenly, I thought of something and just asked him, again without thinking, "Hey, Takeshi, are you over her? Fantine, I mean?"

Takeshi stopped walking and I immediately felt bad. I was kind of expecting that any shred of friendship we had just gained would evaporate. But he just gave me an odd, sad smile and said, "I don't know." Then he turned and walked away properly. "See you around."

"Yeah," I said, more to myself than to him. I stood alone for a second on the track, the breeze ruffling my hair that was pulled up into a tight ponytail. I was right. We were definitely not perfect. I was definitely not perfect.

---zoOM---

"Oh my GOD," Jax said, greeting me at the lobby of our team's headquarters. He seemed a little out of breath and he grabbed both my wrists and shook them, something he had never done before. "Where the hell were you?"

"I was out on the track doing some mediation," I said indignantly, twisting my wrists way from his grasp. "Now back off. What's wrong with you anyway?"

"You didn't hear about it, did you?" he said at the same time Addy and Beckem skid out of an elevator and ran toward Jax and me at full speed when they saw us.

"Oh my god, Lotus, I'm so glad to see you're okay," Addy gushed, also gasping for breath. Beckem didn't say anything, but just nodded at me, his face paler than usual.

"What is going on?" I asked, wishing that someone would just hurry up and tell me. Addy reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone. She promptly flipped it open, hit someone that was obviously on speed dial, and then said, "Brad? Is Mr. Karlen with you? Good, we found Lotus." So, apparently, she wasn't going to tell me.

I turned to Jax and Beckem. They looked at each other and then looked at me. "I think we should get to the briefing room," Jax said as Beckem nodded.

"Okay then," I said, stepping resolutely toward the elevators. "Let's go."

---zoOM---

"How could this have happened?" I gasped in horror a few minutes later. I was watching as on all the news channels imaginable, the top and only headline was the fact that there had been a death in the IGPX circle.

"The Satomi and Sledge Mamma race has just been reportedly postponed until later today, or perhaps even to tonight, to make way for this terrible tragedy and to give time to the authorities to investigate."

"Terrible breaking news today, coming from the world of IGPX racing," said another news channel and another anchor. "Let's go now to our reporter live on the scene."

"Thank you, Mary," said a reporter that was apparently standing in front of a room in which a lot of policemen were milling about in. "At around five this morning, Team Skylark's mechanic, Nancy Mathews, came down to the warehouse to check on the mechs. Apparently, all was well and so she headed back upstairs. But she never made it. On the way, she was killed. Police have confirmed that this was indeed a murder and not an unfortunate accident. The weapon used has already also been confirmed as a gun."

Then screen cut to a shot of some paramedics zipping a body bag up that apparently contained Nancy Mathews. All I caught of her was closed eyes and blonde hair before she was gone forever. All the while, the reporter was talking. "Motives for this attack are not certain, however. Whether this is related to the recent loss Team Skylark had to the new IG1 team, Team Platinum, is not positive, although investigators are not going to rule out that possibility." If the mood had been anything but this, Jax might have jumped up and yelled, "All right! We were mentioned on TV!" But right now, he had the same expression I had on: curious horror.

And besides, what a crappy way to get mentioned on television.

"There has been no word from IGPX officials about what they are going to do about this current incident and what possible steps they will take to ensure the further safety of the other IGPX pilots and their team. We will, of course, keep you updated as we gather further information. Mary, back to you."

"What a horrible, horrible tragedy this is," Mary said, shaking her head sadly. "All right, this has been a breaking news repo—"

Addy, who had possession of the TV controller, changed to another channel.

"Now, the worst thing about this tragedy officials here have said, is that the killer is still at large. There are no suspects as of yet in this case and it might take a while for investigators to come up with them. The authorities here just want to get out to all the remaining IGPX personnel and even to the IGPX fans that are scheduled to watch the races to try and stay safe. Don't go anywhere alone and try not to go out at night. If you see anyone doing anything suspicious, contact local police immediately.

"As for the IGPX pilots, it has been said that security will be tightened at every team's headquarters and security will be tightened at the races. This will hope to deter the killer from striking again. Mack, back to you…"

With that, Addy turned off the TV and let her hand drop back to her side like it was a dumbbell. For a while we all just stood there, still facing the now blank and black television. None of us knew what to do or say. Finally, Addy placed the controller on the table and then headed for the sliding door.

"Make sure you pilots find out when the race will be. I still want you to watch it," she said quietly before she left the room.

A/N: And the long awaited killer appears! Yay! Although it's a bit wrong, I bet you are excited!

I didn't get many reviews for the last chapter and it made me sad but it also made me realize that it wasn't that great of a chapter. I reread it and I was like, okay, that's kind of bland. I guess it was a filler chapter thingy. Sorry about that.

Anyway, currently inside the brain of this authoress is...

-Another IGPX story in the making (which means I'm thinking it through very carefully and have written half of the first chapter). It'll be kind of a half a sequel to this story when I finish it (yes, half a sequel).

-An IGPX oneshot, songfic idea. Haha, I have to admit it's a bit freaky and disturbed but, hey, this is MY brain so...yeah. I'll probably write it out soon (like, perhaps soon after I post this chapter) and just see how it turns out. Then you can be the judge. -cringes-

All right, hopefully this chapter is better. I'm going on vacation soon but I'll see if I can post another chapter before I leave.

Until next time!