AN: Dedicated to all fans of WipEout, especially my partner-in-crime MWDarigan. Also, big thanks to the second reviewer ever SirKnight159. Here we go!

XX

Slow Down!!

XX

It was quiet now. All Milli Norfair heard was the dull electronic buzz of her neon-blue HUD and control panel. The bright hue of atrificial light framed the tight cockpit she sat in, reflecting off the outer canopy in a warm haze.

She couldn't see anything outside as the shaft floodlights were turned off, but in a few moments, her craft would be raised upwards unto the track along with the other nine racers.

The silence was stifling. No amount of on-track mayhem compared to that sheer unhinged feeling of waiting in near-darkness. Though Milli was already scared out of her mind at the very thought of competing in a Super-Phantom Class race, part of her just wanted the torture to end so she could just race the damn thing.

Tapping her foot on the left airbrake incessantly and grumbling audibly, Milli almost slammed her head into the canopy when her craft lurched suddenly.

With a deep mechanical humming, the shaft walls on every side near-blurred as the Lhotus-Akkan shot upwards to the starting grid of the Amphiseum.

Milli craned her head upwards to see a speck of light in the distance, like a welcoming light from the gates of hell.

'I'm screwed.'

What was once pained silence roared into absolute jubilant cheers, as the Lhotus-Akkan rose into place behind the other racers. The crowds were beside themselves with excitement, throwing all manner of neon-confetti and streamers into the air, blanketing the starting grid in a streaming rainbow.

Milli just gaped at the reception. As far as she knew, it was still a preliminary race. The way it looked, it may as well have been a race to determine the greatest in the universe.

She scanned ahead of the track, taking in the opposing craft hovering ahead of her, most of them swaying impatiently or flaring their thrusters as a warning.

'Remember the plan, Mil.' Yuno's voice chipped in. 'Hit the pitstop every 23 laps. If you think Daisy's going to fall apart, bring her in for a Flash Refill. K?'

'Yeah...'

'Just like we practiced.'

'We practiced?'

Yuno laughed, but then sighed heavily.

'This is just insane, Mil. Whose idea was it to have a Super-Phantom race? Remember that other time?'

'Ugh.' Milli grunted in response. It had been a qualifying race for the Fury League about six months back. A ten-lap Phantom race that Mill recalled had been a highlight of her wondrous career, mostly because she had completely swerved off the track in the first lap; driving Daisy nose-first into several meters of snow.

'Damn Sebenco Climb. I couldn't go five seconds without crashing into something.'

'You need to take your time. Get to the know the track.'

'This IS is a race, Yuno.'

'An endurance race. Plently of laps to catch up.'

'Catch up? To Icaras' golden boy McTavish?'

'Hah, like bringing a Predator Tank to a thumb war.'

Chatting to Yuno, Milli almost forgot the crippling fear she had felt before. It wasn't until the giant Vidboard high above the starting grid came to life that Milli remembered what she was supposed to be doing. She tensed in her seat, sweat already itching her neck, gripping the control stick so hard that it rattled spastically despite being in lockdown until the race began.

Up on the Vidboard, the huge image of virtual idol Hatsune Miku danced onto the screen, flicking her hands about in a childish two-handed wave.

'Everyone Ready?' She squeeked in her helium-pitched engrish. The already excited crowd cheered ever louder, rising to their feet.

Miku raised her hand upwards, three fingers in the air.

'No, no, no, no...slow down...' Milli begged.

'Three!'

'This is it, Mil!'

'Two!'

Milli tightened her hold on the flight stick, if that was possible.

'ONE!'

Miku flashed a swooning wink, swinging her upstretched arm down.

'RACE!'

With a collective roar that completely drowned out the screaming crowds, the ten racers blasted off the mark in a multicolored blur.

And Milli Norfair couldn't even breathe.

LAP 1 of 40

Icaras shot ahead of the pack after only a few seconds into the race; the miniscule craft darting around the corners and turns like it was running on indefinite auto-pilot. Every other racer fell behind the first-class ship, but the incredible speeds wouldn't daunt them in racing for their own plight.

At least, most of them were.

'Woah! E-Easy!' Milli snapped at herself breathlessly, taking another sharp hairpin turn too quickly, smashing the Lhotus-Akkan against the adjacent wall in a gut-wrenching screech of metal.

'Ugh!'

She steered away from the wall, but hit the thruster too hard, painfully veering into the opposite side, kicking up another shower of sparks.

Milli could already feel her face burning in embarassment. How many people were laughing at her now? And just what the hell was she thinking? She knew her limits, and this by far exceeded them. Maybe she should just pit after this lap and make something up about engine troubles? Anything to save herself from this...

At this point, Milli couldn't even see the other racers. They were probably a whole lap ahead of her by now.

Feeling utterly miserable, she just navigated the ridiculous turns with her airbrakes engaged at maximum, even easing off the thruster completely when even that didn't stop her from bouncing off the track sides.

A sudden lurch of acceleration from an unseen speedpad almost forced Milli right off the track.

'Slow....DOWN!'

Both airbrakes steadied the Lhotus-Akkan in the middle of the track, coming to a near standstill. Then it took off again for a few seconds; its speed barely peaking as it sped up and down erratically.

Still she urged it forward, biting her bottom lip in frustration.

From a large repair shuttle hovering over the starting grid like a chunky grey rectangular box, Yuno watched the race play out uncomfortably from a flickering monitor amongst a dizzying number of lit-up buttons and controls.

'Don't let it get to you...' She sighed to herself, glancing at the monitor displaying the Lhotus-Akkan braking far too much around yet another corner. A different set of screens showed the other racers, most of them doing pretty bad themselves. Aside from the Icaras pulling further and further away, the rest would also slow down dramatically around turns, bumping into eachother messily.

One of the racers besides Icaras seemed to be doing quite well though; the white and grey craft resembling a next-gen Pirahna only sleeker and smaller, had already moved up three positions. Yuno had never heard of Ghost Original before, but the way it weaved amongst the other racers almost unnoticed was pretty impressive.

The ladder now read:

1. ICARAS

2. WAR-TALON

3. BELKAN-G

4. GHOST ORIGINAL

5. NEO-LILIM

6. BERKUT UNITED

7. SATTAHRI

8. SHISHIGAMI YOMA

9. CISCA FOUNDATION

10. LHOTUS-AKKAN

'Yuno.' Milli's solemn voice crackled through unseen speakers.

'Hey, Mil.' She answered quickly through a mic looped around her ear. Trying to sound encouranging, Yuno replied: 'I can't believe you're actually doing it!'

'Doing what exactly?' Milli asked, deadpan. 'Look, this is embarassing, I'm going to...'

'...Uhhhh, Mil?' Yuno called out worriedly when Milli hadn't said anything for nearly ten seconds.

Finally, Milli replied, her tone strangely invigorated.

'I'm going to race this damn thing.'

'Huh?'

LAP 9 of 40

Something strange happened as Milli charged forth through the Amphiseum. As she had almost resigned herself to pitting indefinitly, cresting the magneto-strip of the track, Mill happened upon something she had not expected to see.

She never thought she'd be so happy to see the ugly torpedo-shaped blue fuselage of the Cisca Foundation ship just a few metres in front of her; swerving wildly all over the place.

It wasn't just the fact that she had caught up to the other racers that surprised her, but also how she somehow seemed to be coping fairly well in navigating the once-merciless turns.

What's going on?

The Lhotus-Akkan cut in on the inside around another turn, easily passing the Cisca, whom tried to grimly block the larger craft but bounced off pathetically and flew completely out of control.

Milli glanced at the rear-cam on her HUD for a second, feeling a slight pang of guilt as she watched the spinning craft slamming into the walls like a pinball before dissappearing from sight.

'Ooooh, "Gommennasai"! So sorry!' Yuno joked, laughing to herself.

'You're terrible!' Milli shot back, stifling a giggle.

The Lhotus-Akkan shot forward with renewed vigour, sweeping around the sharp right-hand turn that lead over the grid.. Hitting the brief straight, Milli saw most of the other craft cross the line en masse ahead. She'd actually caught up!

'You're doing great!' Yuno shouted excitedly as Milli shot past the starting line, finishing another lap of the race.

Milli was still hyperventilating, still struggling to slow down the frenzied beating of her heart. But despite this, she found herself steering Daisy across the track without slamming the craft around every turn. Was she...actually getting used to this?

Whatever was going on, the race wasn't over. And the black and yellow tiger-striped Shishigami Yoma craft ahead of her wasn't keen on letting her pass.

Milli tried cutting in on the inside around a tight bend, but the Yoma blocked her viciously, pecking the front hull of the Lhotus at an angle that nearly forced Milli into a wall.

'H-hey!!'

'Take him!'

Milli tried again, taking the inside. Predictably the Yoma swerved in to block her, only this time Milli side-shifted right before it connected, smashing the other craft's rear end. The Yoma fishtailed spastically, crashing into a wall nose-first at an angle that flipped the entire craft over the railing and completely off the track.

'Woah! Is he Ok?' Milli asked, sincerely worried. She had only wanted to pass him, but the fact that Daisy was about three times heavier than the standard AG craft must've slipped her mind.

'A recovery teams' already lifting it back onto the track. The race is over for him though. They're still about two minutes away. But don't worry about that, stay focused, Mil.'

She was focused. Her worry of the Yoma's wellbeing already vanished, as another craft that she recognized was darting left and right about thirty metres in front. The Sattahri, a sky-blue pint-sized craft that Milli had tangled with before. It's mobilty was impressive, well over twice the amount Daisy had. But lacking in one crucial stat.

Another turn into the straight before the starting line, Milli hit the thruster to max, hitting top-speed in half a second.

Naturally, the Lhotus-Akkan roared by the Sattahri, who didn't bother trying to block the mammoth craft lest he be cleaned off the track. As the first set of sharp turns arrived, the Sattahri sliced its way around the corners, quickly catching up to the Lhotus.

'Sattahri's closing in! Watch it!'

'I see him.'

The two craft took each turn one after the other, but the Sattahri's lighter frame ensured that it closed the distance after each one; eventually ending up side-by-side. All it took was one more sharp turn for the Sattahri to retake its position, zipping in from the outside.

Milli had anticipated this. That last turn lead up to the straight once more, so Milli gunned the thrust right out of it, flipping the giant craft so that it rode the adjacent wall at maximum speed!

The Sattahri's pilot just watched in disbelief when the Lhotus-Akkan blasted around the bend and flew right over his craft, landing hard on the straight in front of him.

'Hit it!'

The Lhotus-Akkan's four rear thrusters flared up, surging it across the straight to take up a commanding lead on the opposition.

'Catch up from that!' Milli yelled, surprised at herself.

'Eh? What was that?'

'Um, n-nothing.'

Nothing. Not a damn thing was going to stop Milli from finishing the race. Except...

LAP 17 of 40

Weapons Activated

'What? No!' Milli yelled in disbelief.

As she had driven the Lhotus-Akkan across the line, her control panel had bleated out that weapon pads on the track had just been turned on.

'Can they do that?'

'I-I'm not sure...lemme see... uhhh...'

Weapons were and always had been the worst opposition Daisy ever had to deal with. Time and time again, with the Vineta K race earlier that day being the earliest example, weapons had literally destroyed her chances of winning. Milli couldn't help it if she chose to absorb a rocket barrage instead of blasting a racer with it. Unfortunately, everyone else wasn't shy about broadsiding the Daisy's massive hull. At times, it felt like she was being singled out on the track. Was it the shoddy paint job or what?

Her HUD beeped, distracting her frustrations for a moment.

'QUAKE.'

Milli was silent. Yuno gasped over the line.

'Hey, Yuno.'

'...Yup?'

'I'm tired of losing.'

With that, she hit the trigger.

A hail of bullets ripped out of the barrels under the Ghost's nose, strafing the walls around the brown camouflage pattern of the Belkan-G; an offshoot of the Australian Triakis, only made in New Zealand.

'Damn!' Lars cursed, hitting the airbrakes hard. He had tried to cut in on the Belkans' flight path around a narrow turn, hoping to hit it with enough rounds to disorient the craft. But he had missed every single shot, as well as swerving awkwardly due to the recoil of the weapon. In short, he wasn't going to pass this guy, as his last futile attempt gave the Belkan enough of a lead to exit missile range.

The other racers hadn't been much trouble at all, since they had barely noticed him passing through. But Belkan-G and War-Talon were in a class of their own, much like Icaras. To Lars, at least, it seemed like the two were working together. They didn't fire upon eachother, and would blanket the track with mines on occasion. It wasn't illegal by any means, but that didn't stop it from pissing him off.

'SHIELD'

Ghost didn't need the extra energy, so he just activated it, the shimmering honeycomb of energy wrapping around his craft a second later.

Suddenly, Lars felt a deep tremor shaking him to the core. Glancing quickly at the rear camera, Lars saw a seismic rapture tearing its way down the track like a wave of fire.

'AAGH!!'

The Quake hit, shattering the Ghost's extra shield in a burst of multicoloured energy. Luckily, the primary shields hadn't been hit so the Ghost lost no momentum from the attack.

Belkan-G and War-Talon weren't so fortunate as the Quake hit them flush around a bend, smashing them both into a wall.

The pilots of the craft swore and argued with each other, as the Ghost Original silently bypassed them unnoticed.

LAP 23 of 40

'Time to pit, Mil'

Milli engaged both airbrakes, coming to a complete stop underneath Yuno's repair shuttle hovering over the starting grid. The varied shuttles of the other teams waited side by side for their respective teams, save the ones who had pitted before, namely Icaras, Ghost Original, War-Talon, and Belkan-G.

Once in place, Milli almost lost her breakfast when the AG magnets lifted Daisy off the track and latched onto the repair shuttle. Several robotic arms and repair drones went to work; replacing torn armor plates, recharging the shields, and refuelling the AG reactor via a thick hose that snapped into place underneath the Lhotus-Akkan's hull.

After all repairs were completed, the Lhotus-Akkan was released from the shuttle, falling quickly onto the track where it shot off the mark; replenished and ready.

Milli was ecstatic. The last few laps before pitting had been tough, as Daisy's traction and speed both diminished dramatically. The last few turns had been especially hellish, with Daisy's already abysmal handling becoming near-unbearable. But now, with Daisy flying at its peak, Milli felt a new wave of energy burning though her veins.

Which was why it came as an absolute shock when a missile tore its way towards her.

From the front. Milli swerved in desperation; the missile shooting past her craft, only for another missile to zone in from ahead of her.

No time to dodge, no time to blink.

The weapon hit. Hard.

Milli screamed as she completely lost control, the g-forces throwing her body around roughly from her seat; the constraints keeping her in place but digging into her painfully.

The Lhotus-Akkan crashed, flipping onto its cockpit and sliding down the track upside down, slamming into a wall so hard that its shielding just evaporated on contact, instead cracking apart the crafts' armour on impact.

Milli's vision blurred red. Distant voices playing in her head. The roar of AG engines passing her by.

'......il! H---.....ey!'

I can't.

'Mil! Please! Say something!'

Why?

'MILLI!'

Why can't I finish?

Yuno was beside herself. Every second that Milli's voice remained absent from Yuno's earpiece, her sick worry grew.

'Milli! Just hang in there, I'm coming to---'

'Wait...'

Yuno gasped, already out of breath. She didn't know wether to be relieved or furious.

'Mil! D-Don't do that! I am SO going to kick you for this! Sheesh!'

'...I'm fine...by the way...'

'....I'm sorry, Mil. Look, just wait there for me and---'

'I'm not done yet.'

'Huh?!'

Yuno noticed something from the corner of her eye. One of the monitors that tracked Daisy's progress unbelievably displayed the craft already flipping itself over using its auxiliary thrusters.

'Mil! It's all redlining! You'll have to pit again just to keep going!'

The pit stop before should've been the only one Daisy needed. Pitting twice would mean giving the other racers an unchallenged lead.

'I'll see you soon then. Will you be ready?'

Yuno couldn't believe it. Milli was serious!

'Yeah, I'll prep the system again. But what're you going to do?'

A pause. The sound of Daisy's AG reactor roared to life over the speakers.

'I am NOT going to finish last!'