FEISAR temporary HQ, Nova State City, 25 May 2048

Barbara and the rest of the FEISAR Pilots weren't ready for what they're having in front. Appearing with its full carbon fiber body, the long awaited Prototype was a curious patchwork of their lively Speed Class but different parts remove and then applied, attached and screwed on its chassis. Some other kept the distinctive sunny yellow of their Team to don't make it visually too flat, without getting too far off their original design.
As soon as Robertson saw that he got their full attention, he cleared his voice and looked over Casei-Jonas to let him explain what they're seeing.

"This is the result of our experiments using the technology of the Speed Pads, using a fuel system which gets 'charged' through them. This means that it starts slower than the rest of the grid initially, but the more you hit the pads, the faster it becomes. Exactly what will happen at maximum velocity is still unknown at this stage. In fact, the initial testing sessions gave... unexpected results."

The Technician paused, he took out a small remote control and he shown some pictures of the very first drafts first and the first test races on the big screen unfolded in the large hangar. Through the presented images, the original look of their Speed Class became even more evident through those first draws and crude chassis next hovering over the familiar European tracks for many of them.

"Initially the front-wing wasn't present, but after we saw it nearly flying off the Test Circuit of Strasbourg and nosedive in the one of Bologna, injuring one of our drivers there, it had to be added. Now it is fully stabilized and with a failsafe applied in the engine which resets its energy accumulated each lap, although even hitting too hard the racetrack will slow it down equally. Anyway, remember that the Atlantic Ocean isn't a good candidate to it test out, please."

The dry chuckles earned through those anecdotes shared in the room dimmed pretty fast, letting the Technician to speak again and conclude there the small presentation.

"In conclusion, we consider this the pinnacle of our technology that we've studied so far in these five or so years, and we cannot wait to advance further into the Championship with this in our hands."

But before anyone could react or clap their hands at their colleague, Robertson was fast to catch the topic once more and drop the bomb, finally revealing why they were all here on the first place.

"The final testing ground will be an actual race around the circuit of Empire Climb, as the Federation allowed. Sofia, you will be given the honors to pilot the Prototype, that's because we need your cold blood to pilot it at the fastest Speed Class approved by the Federation so far, the A Class, and 10 Laps to go with. The other seven Pilots will be selected from your Testing group."

A brief pause followed as Robertson took the device from the hands of Jonas and pressed the button to the last slide.

SVENSSON LEAH

FAKHR ABDALLAH

SERRANO MANUEL HUGO

CHAZAN YEHUDA

RAJAB KARIMA

SHU JIE

SANT'ELIA BARBARA

"One more thing about this A Class. Your engines aren't 'docked' anymore, they'll go at their full potential and speed, which the latter is calculated to reach at least 793 km/h, so be really careful tomorrow. I hope you will make through easily, and don't feel ashamed to ask to stop if the speed reached might be too much for your bodies. After all, you'll be driving about half the speed of sound, if not a little higher than that."

The description of such speed, combined with the fact that they'll have to handle ten laps at that pace, paled some of the Test Pilots there, included Barbara. For them, it could be easily the ultimate test against themselves and see if all the time training and racing one another gave some hoped results.

It was time to return where everything started.

The next day, Empire Climb

The circuit bathed in the early morning lights was another spectacular sight of this city, setting the mood for the long race ahead.

Barbara begun to count the people present on each side of the stages while waiting for the all-clear. There were no spectators, only FEISAR Mechanics, Technicians and Engineers, tablets and notebooks at hand and eager to see how this new Prototype would behave outside of the testing grounds. Some members of the Federation was also there, gazing down at them with their unmistakable appearance and unreadable expressions. Even Dr. Lindsday and her colleague were standing alongside in their medic coats, and she swore that for a moment their gazes met before the track was cleaned up and the hovering pinchers left the track in their slow dance in the sky. However, that meant that it was time for all of them to leave the spectators seats and head back to their mobile racebox just outside the track. At least she knew she's there with the rest, and somewhat that made her smile inside her helmet. After that, Barbara resumed to examine her surroundings once more, with everyone having a FEISAR Speed in their hands with the sole exception for the dark grey Prototype piloted by their First Pilot, floating free just a few meters from hers, conveniently at the very last row of the grid.

"All-clear given, the race will begin in a minute." Warned one of the Technician in every helmet of the grid, snapping back the Italian Pilot's attention in her cockpit.

"Copy that." Echoed in different moment their responses to the Controller.

The race started without any impressive sounds from the outside than their own roaring engines. The rest of the Team, in fact, was solely focused on the performance of their Prototype, as it was acting as calculated through the first laps: starting very slow at the beginning, just to gain more and more speed the more de la Rente skillfully drove over the speed pads scattered on the city's concrete, up to the spectacular Climb with the full row of them ready for her to pass through. At the gut-wrenching drop and the final fall before the speed would reset to its initial state at the end of the lap, the Technicians scanned the speed it reached and they held surprised gazes within each other.

"Over 1000km/h! Dear Lord, that's where all the noise came from!" One of them commented through the general claps and pats on their backs.

1000km and not flying off as feared was an achievement for everyone, including the Federation for its Mag-Strip to sustain such speeds and keep them all on track.

On the next row of laps, even Svennson had a very hard time catching up with the First Pilot throughout the race, but what came through the new laps was the vigor of Sant'Elia trying to match the times of de la Rente. Each time the speed of Sofia dropped at the end of each lap, she was always there, trying to give her a good challenge by continuously keeping the first position, only to lose it by mere seconds when the maximum speed was hit for the Prototype.

But fatigue begun to plague the first pilots.

Serrano and Rajab DNF around Lap 6 as they couldn't sustain anymore the Gs pulled at those speeds and for that length of time, while the rest remained but with a slightly worse driving pattern, making Sofia the one resisting as the Leader way better in that second half of the race.

"Barbara, the graphs tells us that you're overexerting, slow down!" Warned suddenly one of the Technicians through the comms of the Italian Pilot, although she couldn't really feel that at all, her body almost got accustomed to all the pushes and turns.

Maybe the euphoria veiled the pain in her legs and arms, to the point of numbness, while her breath remained on focus, but she couldn't deny that she was starting to feel them getting heavier and faster by the moment. Yet, she did as requested, but losing the second position to Svennson. So close, and yet so far, she thought through her gritted teeth as she tried to recollect herself enough to push forward the last two laps. Sure, she had nothing to win or lose in this event, but she couldn't give up the splendid pace she suddenly took and see it going away like that.

And so, she pushed through once more.

De la Rente looked at the small camera angled to her left side and noticed the FEISAR Speed of Sant'Elia peeking through her visual cone once more, close enough to surpass her if she didn't have the engine fully loaded up already. However, she disappeared in the shortcut before the Climb, just to reappear in the air, twirling majestically and falling down with a boost to remain on the lead for the next 100 meters - one hundred interminable meters. The line of speed pads guided them both on the last straight line, before she had to admit the "defeat" and let her pass through the end of the race.
Although the Finish line was met without any cheering audience there, the congratulations from the team showered the comms of everyone who remained on track.

The testing was a total success.

The post race analysis, though, was met with mixed reaction through the Team, especially for the overall performance of their Test Pilots under such stress. Not only Barbara was scolded for her recklessness on track, but also Leah and Yehuda for exerting more than they could tolerate. The same results came through the scheduled check-in immediately after they got dropped off to their familiar Medics.

"It's already a miracle that you haven't got any serious injuries." Malina sighed out as she was finished with the check-up on Sant'Elia, who bashfully smiled at her in return.

"Well, let's say I've handled that like a champ-"

"No, seriously." The Canadian interrupted her, more serious than before. "Are you aware that you were reaching Gs that only Aviation Pilots could tolerate for long period of times? You were trained to tolerate those competing in a Formula. You'd damaged your lungs, have a syncope, get your eye retinas detached or you'd have suffered a stroke at worst."

Barbara interrupted her back with frantic waves of her hands and head, looking like she had heard more than enough from her list of ways she could've died in those last laps.

"O-Ok Doc, I got it."

Lindsday pinched the bridge of her straight nose, avoiding to mess up its foundation by holding there too hard in her mild frustration. After a brief sigh, her arms relaxed and she sat down to write something with her fountain pen and lend it to her once she was over with.

"Anyway, nothing new aside from that. You four can have a break of some days to let your body rest, but be more careful next time, and that includes you too." She finally dismissed her in the end, handling her both the restoratives to take during that period and the amount of days to rest - if Barbara could even make through the first letters written on the silky paper.

As soon as the FEISAR Pilots left, it was already midday. A soft knock on the door caught her attention and immediately she replied while she put away her prescriptions papers in their respective drawer.

"Come in."

The familiar face of Jiménez lit under the LED space appeared, smiling down at her politely and in his hands holding their respective lunchboxes for them to enjoy after that intense day.

"How did it went with these checks?" He asked as he took the seat she silently nudged him to take in front of her desk, without opening his own box yet.

Malina shook her head with an annoyed look over her face, the answer became clear before she could even open her mouth. "Pretty bad. The effects of such speed on one's body must be held in great consideration next time. Even Ms. de la Rente lamented that on herself, and she's one of the best on track beside Dekka, Arial and Solaar."

The face of the Brazilian man frowned upon hearing that, with his concerns being directed elsewhere with that in mind. "Mr. Humphré won't be pleased, I feel it."

"I know, but it only means that all of them must train harder if we want to implement more Speed Classes to this Championship. And when I say all, I mean it as such."

The small room fell awfully silent for a long minute, interrupted only by the plastic clicks of their respective boxes being opened and the metallic cutlery following after to start their humble meal in that tensed atmosphere. Thankfully, her colleague was the last to give a reassuring note overall.

"Understood. For now we'll give these data to them and the Federation, then see how it'll go."

The next day...

"I see you've been refining your skills well, Sant'Elia."

Barbara, upon hearing her surname being addressed, turned around and she saw standing there, in all her proud presence, the First Pilot herself. Her heart nearly skipped a beat for the excitement for her to be here, and immediately she hopped off the FEISAR Agility she had helped to calibrate in the testing grounds and went to greet her properly, handshake and all with a wide grin on her radiant face.

"Rente! It's so good to see you again! How's it going?"

Sofia adjusted her long wavy wisp falling on the right side of her face with a small flick of her hand, shifting her weight from one leg to another and hum gently at her happy presence and fast paced talk.

"Still kicking after that Prototype test. I just wanted to compliment your skills that you've pulled out yesterday. I had already some troubles reaching the speeds that Prototype had, figure out yourself."

"Oh! Oh… oh well, yeah... it was quite the challenge I have to admit, but I'm glad to hear that. However... how so? I mean, was I that good?"

"Haven't you checked your time yesterday and your records so far? You're getting as good as the Icy Trio, if not as good as Ms. Svennson."

The poor Test Pilot remained there, stunned, after she heard that coming out from the First Pilot. She never paid any attention about her skills since she was mostly focused to work on giving data to the Technicians than getting better, but she couldn't lie about the fact that she was feeling more natural on board of her FEISAR ships, with them turning out like a part of herself, a similar sensation she had heard many times coming from the three Pilots. If Sofia realized that, it was something even better - maybe?

Sofia, noticing the dumbfounded expression of the Test Pilot, resumed to speak. "At least we'll have a well deserved rest before the next race, in the meantime keep going on. You have potential, just like I've noticed back in Bologna." She ended to say with a firm pat on her shoulder, and as she appeared so suddenly, she left without adding much.

"Cryptic and mysterious as always." Casei-Jonas commented with a light scoff, standing up from his mechanic cot underneath the stabilized Agility craft to clean his hands and give a glance at her shadow disappearing from the corner in time.

After that, he looked back at Barbara and smiled gently at her. "Anyway, thanks for helping me out with the airbrakes calibrations, I'm sure that now it'll go smoothly for the next race without any more issues that Nakajima lamented in these days. Until then yeah, you deserve the break given by the Federation after that insane race."

At the mention of the race, she blinked a few times and gasped quietly.

"Right! When it'll be?"

The brunette man hummed as he raised his wrist to check his watch and nodded. "In six days. Everyone will have time to prepare until then."

And in those five days, she'll know what to do indeed to prepare herself.

Queens Mall, Nova State City, 30 May 2048

Outside of the race, Queens Mall was like any typical huge Mall constructed in the past decades, able to rival the big names across Great Britain, Russia, many more here in America and some other big ones in North Italy with its impressive size and architectural beauty of steel, glass and candid concrete. There was only one major difference, a literal AG Track meandered through its lowest level, as she was able to see better from the tall bridge just at the end of the azure road curving on one of its sides close to the exit of the giant building. In the quieter environment of the soft music and the low buzzing voices of the people around her, not the engines at full force and the weapons blasting off nearby, she found herself in a good solace.
After she remained there daydreaming for a bit, one of her group finally caught up with her. It was Karima with her tote bag already filled to the brim, but she looked unbothered by the weight as soon as she rushed to stand beside the taller Pilot.

"Barbara! You reached earlier the meeting point! Have you got already what you wanted?" She asked with pure curiosity as soon as she put down her bag safely next to them.

"Yup, just some clothes and this lovely thing in particular, it was in discount for 15$." Barbara proudly said as she pulled out what looked out a very cumbersome white camera, decorated with a rainbow in front of the comedically large objective.

"It's a Polaroid! I even got a big pack full of films with a similar price. Man, I always wanted one when I was younger." She commented while her fellow looked surprised to see something that is at least 40 years old in her hands.

"How does it even work?" The French woman asked with a puzzled expression, if not embarrassed for her mild ignorance over that matter.

Barbara didn't thought twice on answering her. "I'll show you. Strike a pose!"

As the lighting was already good for some shots, she didn't activated the flash and simply pointed the camera toward her. A soft click edged in the air and the instant was immortalized within its white and black frame. After that, she grabbed the photograph and waited for it to "render" over its glossy surface, and she handled her the final product.

"Here you go, let's see if it was a good one."

Karima gasped, and then squealed with excitement upon seeing herself in that vintage photo, there was an indescribable charm to it that she didn't know how to express other than being all excited there.

"This is so precious, thank you so much!"

"Don't sweat it!" Barbara replied with a genuine laugh of joy upon admiring her reaction.

Soon after she received the photograph, the rest of the group arrived as well, gazing at the curious camera of Barbara as well. Jie and Ciobanu swore that they had seen them before in the hands of some of his friends, while most of the Test Pilots there were totally clueless of such old tech in front of them. Regardless, it made up for some good moments saved at the Mall in their company, and half a box of photos already used by the end of their day outside.
As they headed to the local Megabyte for an informal dinner together, they resumed to talk about their time there at Nova State City and their overall experience so far, all the while with some people around them looking at their Team jackets and recognizing them from some past events, while others remained nonchalant around them.

"So, what are you all going to do when this Season will be over?" Barbara asked, sipping her medium Coke in wait for her chicken hamburger.

Hugo was the first to speak, laying down on the chair with a relaxed expression. "I will return to Catalonia and resume my service as a Lifeguard."

Karima clapped her hands happily at that. "That's so nice! I think I might return to my city in Provence and help my parents at their Farmhouse, and perhaps continue to study Biochemistry with what I've earned so far."

Ioannis hummed, crossing his arms. "Pretty much the same here, I have some large olive farms to look upon, but I'm sure my wife did wonderfully that already."

"Hoping that more snow will fall in winter, I'll be back in my snowboarding lessons, or else I'll remain with the guys at FEISAR." Hannah added, with Briem and Leah simply nodding.

Abdallah, Damian and Herkus looked neutral, but they were all on the same boat, that was remaining with FEISAR and see what they'd do next by the end of the season. Regardless, everyone finished by looking back at Barbara with curiosity once their orders arrived on the table.

"And what about you, Barbara?"

The Italian Pilot looked up at the warm neon lights and passed a hand over her mouth, thoughtful. There was so much to do and who knows how much more time in her hands, so she preferred to dwell her full focus with the sole thing she knew she'd do well.

"I will continue to race and work for FEISAR, I want to improve even more, and maybe reach the levels of the Pilots here and who knows, have a seat as one." She declared with determination in her lively green eyes, earning smiles and nods from the rest of the eleven Pilots around her. Despite they noticed that it was very hard to reach such skills, maybe nothing was too lost to see her getting that good if she so wanted.

"If I made it from zero, I'm sure you can as well, if not better, Barbara." The Swedish Pilot declared proudly, resting her hand firmly on her shoulder, and that felt like a blessing for the Italian girl.

In a moment of pride and joy to be here, she grabbed her glass and stood up, raising it up triumphantly. "Then... let's have a toast to all of our future achievements!"

The rest followed, slowly standing up with their glass to toast alongside.

"To our future!"

Capital Reach, Nova State City, 1st of June 2048

"Here we are at the penultimate race of the Season, back to Capital Reach!" Florence presented with excitement tangible in her voice before she continued with the same enthusiasm that her audience grew fond of. "This time, we have an interesting mix on the grid, composed by Nakajima with her FEISAR Agility, Dekka with his AG-Systems Speed, Paul Jackson with his FEISAR Agility, Nana-san with his AG-Systems Agility, Cherovoski with her Auricom Agility, Chang with his AG-Systems Agility, Arial Tetsuo with her Auricom Speed and lastly B.J. with his Auricom Agility. No Qirex are present here so far, as they didn't make it to the final qualifications for the race. Instead, they seem more focused on the next Combat on Metro Park, tomorrow at the same hour as today, where they didn't show any hesitation and ended up with ease at the last one of the season."

Dirk then took the word in the pre-Race commentary, agreeing with her with a small nod. "Despite they had some issues in the past weeks, their brute force on every track seems to come in their favor, but will it be enough to come victorious in these last ones planned for this very first Season?"

The camera zoomed back to the starting grid, as the FEISAR duet on the front was more than ready to win this next race around the old Brooklyn Bridge, as they had some weeks ago.

The spectacular start accompanied the spectators across the East River in all its golden hour beauty, while vertical drone-airships overlooked each side of the track with even more cheering crowd atop them. At the exit, Sofia got surprised by the sudden fall of Arial, who previously took a shortcut and gained a significant boost thanks for an aerobatic barrel roll, but Sofia tried to catch up with her at the more wide area of the road leading to the very first tight turn. Even if she was with one of the heaviest Speed Class, Arial continued with her graceful show as she managed to catch the corner and not even scratch the blue and red nose of her Auricom. Then the short fall finally guided them to the most tightest corners of the Season so far, tied with wide chicanes and littered with Speed Pads guiding the Pilots off at full speed, something that Sofia managed to do with her more agile ship.

"Damn, if only I had the FEISAR Prototype here, with all these aligned speed pads this race would've been a stroll in the park." Sofia sighed out through the comms, earning a few chuckles from their Team at their racebox.

The final section of the race, a long and steeply angled glass road still filled with Speed Pads, passed over a main road of the district, returning the Pilots to the other side of Manhattan after they've glanced through the traffic moving lazily underneath them.

The second lap had instead a close fight between Dekka and Cherovoski for the third place. The Auricom Pilot was faster to react to an incoming Rocket aimed at her hull, but she lost the balance of her Agility at the tight hairpin, leaving trails of shining sparkles from the hull at the violent contact against the sidetracks. The opportunity was at hand still for the American, and without thinking twice he passed past her. But the race was far from over.

"Paul Jackson is at the fifth position right now, and catching up with the faster group composed by Tetsuo, de la Rente and Dekka!" Exclaimed Florence, at the edge of her seat. "OH! INCREDIBLE! Thanks for that Turbo, he managed to move past the hairpin and fall below the section of the track at the chicanes! The Federation will have a look upon that and check if it's possible to do such a maneuver, but what a move! He managed to catch up with Cherovoski and surpass her at the next shortcut!"

"This British man truly knows his reflexes if he managed to push his FEISAR Agility through the crook of that jump." Breakwater commented with genuine interest at that airshow literally.

The last lap was the most intense so far, as Sofia and Arial returned to headbutt between Missiles fired and Shields activated to counter them. Unfortunately a line of Mines settled down next to the last line of Speed Pads put a heavy stop on the French Pilot, who could only try to regain the control of her Speed craft and continue her restless chase, but Arial was already past her sight, waving at the carousel of cars below the glass section and move past the finish line, where the checkered screen waited only for her.

"And another win for the enfant prodige and her Team! However, my sincere congratulations for the FEISAR Pilots, who didn't gave up the slightest and scored the second and fourth position in this penultimate race of the Season. Too bad that Cherovoski failed to reach a higher position this time."

"I do agree with you Dirk, but I am sure that they'll keep to give us a nice spectacle until the very end." Florence replied as she crossed her legs to relax at last. "Anyway, we are waiting for the decision of the Federation upon what Jackson did at the Third Turn, which allowed him to jump at the fourth position with ease."

As the awards ceremony continued cheerfully with Champagne and the Badges being given on their digital medal table, the men in burgundy suits reappeared on a different screen.

"We've checked the videos and came to the conclusion that it was another shortcut of the track, therefore not penalizable. The fourth position of the Pilot Jackson remains valid."

Most of the crowd boomed in a jubilant cry, but others remained quiet or were outright outraged, whistling aggressively upon that decision - but they remained suffocated by the larger portion of the more joyous crowd. Jackson, with his green Normal Pass at hand, got surrounded by the cheering Team and the other two Pilots, who joined in a heartwarming group hug around the massive man. For them, that was enough.

"As we let the celebrations to continue undisturbed, let's now have a look on the other two sessions ongoing on Metro Park and Unity Square respectively." Florence announced, ready to move the cameras from the post-race session to the other two Combat events scheduled around that time.

"I can see the Fighter ships on track already around the first event, at Unity Square. The early qualification for them gave a significant boost on the pair of FEISAR Fighters, but close behind we have still the pair of Qirex, loaded up menacingly also this day." Florence "To resume once more, today the objective for a full win is 50 Points scored, the minimum is 25 Points, and the time to reach the objective is 3 minutes. On Metro Park instead, the winning score is 100 Points and the minimum is 50, for a total of 3 minutes to reach such targets. Let's see how the Teams will behave in these two Combats this evening!"

The answer didn't take too long to arrive on screen, as the two Combat session begun with both Solaar and Arian Tetsuo ravaging the track against the duets of Agility and Speed Classes present on Unity Square and the pairs of Fighters from FEISAR, AG-Systems and Auricom on Metro Park respectively. Despite being piloted by their best Test Pilots, they couldn't compete with them the slightest. As they got crowned with the first place respectively, it was another easy win for the Russian Team.

Queens Mall, Nova State City, 7 June 2048

The three longest minutes of the Season where about to get started on the familiar racetrack.

On the front, the trio of Pilots from FEISAR towered over the grid with their Fighters, while just a little lower the double Fighters of Auricom and AG-Systems held proud their position. Only Solaar was there, at the very last row of the grid, with the menacing Qirex Fighter in his hands. This time it wouldn't be like the past unbalanced event with only Speed ships almost, as the Federation nearly crossed out the scores of Kurlov to don't get in trouble with the rest of the Teams involved in that day. This time everyone is on an equal ground.

"What's the best way to have an explosive finish than here at Queens Mall?" Florence commented with an excited tone, a sensation equally shared with Breakwater beside.

"Indeed. The last two Combats of a week ago had the Russian Team to dominate the scene with their far more aggressive style and dangerous Firepower that we've all grew accustomed to see on our screens. It didn't helped much the fact that one of the two Combat events had unfitting Classes once again."

"But tonight everything changes, and we have all our best Pilots on the grid! De la Rente, Jackson and Nakajima did a wonderful quali to remain on the front grid, while Tetsuo and B.J. managed to snatch a position just below them, finishing with Dekka and Nana-san at the penultimate row. Undisputed winner for now, will Solaar accept this challenge with the Teams' best? Again, the score to reach is 50 Points, in three minutes square."

The red screen at the starting line flashed down the countdown to zero, and immediately the FEISAR Fighters got the upper hand with the yellow Offensive Pads underneath them, and with a flick of a lever, the Combat spin pushed them right at the other side, where they caught the Auricom Pilots by surprise with a shower of Cannons. The other two AG-Systems managed to miss them by nimbly driving away from the line of fire and drift away the more cumbersome American Fighters. The lone Qirex Fighter watched, scanned, from a reasonable distance, with the mentality of a predator waiting for the rest to worn out.

Down at the entrance of Queens Mall, the explosive show continued, with Jackson being on the lead beside Tetsuo and Dekka on the leaderboard. Then, suddenly, a flash of blue struck the latter, shattering most of the hull upon the impact, and before he'd even realise the hit, a Missile sent him flying off the destroyed Fighter. With the safety pod being hastly retrieved on track by a drone, the fight continued ahead and toward the exit of the immense building.

"Full eight points plus twenty scored for Solaar!" Florence exclaimed, and while she caught her breath, the scores continued to increase on the Russian's favor.

Dirk scoffed as he crossed his arms with a more rigid pose on the seat. "A smart tactic he pulled off straight from the Aviation, Solaar is always full of surprises when he is down on the track. Only de la Rente and Tetsuo seems up to the challenge it seems."

A minute and half passed, and the leaderboard continued to get diminished and more serried on the points, with also Nakajima and Nana-san being eliminated from the competition by the fearsome ex-Ace. De la Rente used a more defensive tactic, which resulted on damaging and slowing down the Qirex Pilot, but that only exposed her to the more relentless hits of Tetsuo. At thirty seconds away from the finish and only one lap made to regenerate a little bit of their energy shield, none wanted to step down on their gained position, down to the breaking point.
The lights erupting out the long turn inside the building made the spectators to hold their breath, as another name was DNF from the Combat - and another again. A flash of steel and magenta moved past the bridge, almost untattered. A vision of terrible beauty and destruction.

Solaar aimed at the nearly totalled ship of de la Rente, but before he could pull the trigger, a message on board flashed, rendering it immovable even at the strongest push of his thumb.

COMBAT SYSTEM DEACTIVATED - COMBAT EVENT CONCLUDED

He released the hold around the controller and slowed down beside what remained of the Pilots on the track. A long sigh escaped him, and the slightest of grins tingled his upper lip against his fraught beard.

"Right when I was warming up. Shame."

After they've got picked up from the track, the ceremony commenced, crowning Solaar as the winner once more under the roaring crowd of the Team's Fans. Tetsuo and de la Rente looked neutral about his win, but they eventually approached him for a formal handshake for the cameras to immortalize.

Above them, the leaderboard shown the final points gained by all three of them.

SOLAAR - 97

TETSUO - 82

DE LA RENTE - 77

"What a Combat, my lovely Fans! This was an absolute treat before the end of this Championship!" Commented out loud Florence in front of the ceremony being broadcasted through her screens.

"See you then next week, at the same hour, for the final race to declare which Pilot and which Team will be crowned as the very first Champion, at Unity Square!" Declared Breakwater as the screen moved to the skyline of the city, where Victory, soaring proud on the Atlantic Ocean, awaited for that day to come and greet the future winner of the Championship.