Unity Square, Nova State City, 8th of June 2048 - Final Race of the Season
"Good evening and welcome back to the official streaming channel of the Championship! At last, we're here to watch and witness the very last Event of the first season of the AGRC! We're back in the night race of Unity Square, with another grid full of the Pilots we began to know and love in the past months. On the front we have Arial Tetsuo and Nana-san, on the second grid we have Sofia De la Rente and Paul Jackson, on the third grid we have John Dekka and Anastasia Cherovoski and lastly, we have Ami Nakajima and Daniel Chang." Breakwater presented as the hovering drones left for the last time the track after they've placed down all the Pilots on their respective spots.
"A very dense grid tonight I have to say, with much more unexpected Pilots who reached the very first lines, just to show how much they have improved in these last months." Florence commented back with a proud look in her maroon eyes gazing back at the camera.
"As we're waiting for the start, a quick update about today's race. Weapons are allowed, the laps are 5 in total this time and, as a special preview to the next season, the Federation approved to let them get a grip on the B Class speed. Some of them will reach at least 408 mph, or 657 km/h, quite the boost in pace since they were mostly accustomed to the 334 mph of the C Class, or 538 km/h around. Let's see how they'll behave in this longer race that'll finally determine the winning Pilot and the winning Team!"
The city followed the festive nature of this race, with a full audience present all across its track for the first time. Just as imagined, the Sport gained quite the popularity in these months, and the results were having their effect on action. Whoever wasn't on track remained on their respective raceboxes, in trepidation for whoever would make it out from this race.
The European Team looked confident, although the Americans of Auricom and the Japanese one of AG-Systems were a few points away from one another. For being only four so far, they had done the impossible to put up a competitive Team, with their strength and weaknesses.
Everything culminated here in the end, under the night skies of Unity Square.
"Lights out and away they go! An excellent start for the American team, with Arial protecting her left side from the looming presence of Nana-san's Speed, while de la Rente and Jackson seems to have a plan up their sleeves since they're literally blocking the way from the lower grid's Pilots from even moving past the initial chicane."
But Cherovoski had other plans with her Auricom Agility. Past the row of Speed Pads, she flew past an Offensive one and in her cockpit flashed the Missile available to use. A trail of red energy flew past the tunnel and hit straight against the ship of Dekka, slowing him down enough to take his position and gain the fifth position so far, while the American Pilot had to fall into the sixth, surpassed also by Ami Nakajima. As the race continued past the Park section of the track, the action returned in the city centre, between the infighting and the unexpected first position snatched from Arial by de la Rente, who skillfully took two of the available shortcuts present, one which followed a section of the hanging railway of the city, and the second just above the final straight to the finish line.
"We're already at the second lap with an astounding show given by de la Rente! Great use of the speed pads aligned on the shortcuts, I bet Arial didn't see it coming!"
The second lap was a little bit more stagnant, as the positions began to crystallise, divided by mere cents from one another at times. Only the weapons added some spice in between the space of one turn to another, as it was a continuous hit-and-run between the pilots in the middle of the leaderboard, for now dominated by AG-System and FEISAR. Nana-san unfortunately fell fifth after a line of Mines forced him to slow down and move over some Offensive and Defensive Pads to reconstruct his energy shield, all the while Dekka rose to the third position with a Turbo at the penultimate section of the track.
But at the third and fourth lap, everything changed.
"Call it luck, call it good astral alignment, call it as you'd like, but I've never seen such a big recovery from one team like this."
The leaderboard shown was almost an exact upside picture of the initial grid, now Nana-san, Dekka and Chang were at the podium, with the FEISAR Team crammed in one block at the fourth, fifth and sixth place, and the Auricom team fell down to the seventh and eighth place. The responsible was Nana himself after he shot the now infamous Quake from the nose of his craft - a thrilling yet devastating wave of energy blasting forward the track ahead, disrupting momentarily the AG engines and slowing them down within the radius of one quarter of the track. The effect in the end was almost a paved road for the more reactive red ships of the Japanese team, which climbed easily from their last positions to the first and letting fall behind the more sluggish ones of the American team.
FEISAR persisted, but it couldn't catch up and remained fourth, fifth and sixth.
The audience was ecstatic when the last lap began, cheering for the team of Belmondo, the absolute winners of this last event for an unforgettable season. Fireworks flared in the night sky above them when Dekka crossed the line, followed by Chang and Nana-san, then de la Rente, Jackson and Nakajima, until they had to accept the defeat together between Arial and Cherovoski.
"And AG-Systems is the winner of this fantastic race, which kept us at the edge of our seats for five incredible laps! What an amazing show, my fellow fans!" Breakwater cheered from the screen still showing the celebrations ongoing across the streets and the night skies around Unity Square.
The actual ceremony was held soon after all the pilots were showered by the warmth and the pride of everyone from the raceboxes, showing that after all this was a win for everyone - the first official season, despite its mild high and low points, went better than anyone could have imagined, neither Belmondo, who hugged and kissed his three Pilots as if they were his sons. The same man went to shake hands also with the rest soon after, with his turquoise eyes filled with joyous tears.
This was the victory of a long period of struggles, the real light shining at the end of the tunnel, the coronation of a child's dream to defy the impossible, the final conquest of humanity's ingenuity.
The next day...
All the Teams were called to join the Federation at the Hotel Metropolitan, situated past the Brooklyn Bridge and overseeing a dormant track section of Capital Reach, to declare who were the most successful in the first ever Season of the AGRC. Journalists from all over the world and the citizens of the Nova State City flooded the surrounding space of the building.
As they settled the main hall of the imposing building to welcome the Pilots and the Representative of each Team, the Federation had their spot on a single table beside each Founder or Director. With a short cough to clear his voice in the microphone, Humphré called the attention of everyone, while one of his assistants turned on the projector behind them.
"Welcome, and thanks for participating in this gathering. To me and for the rest of the people involved here this morning, this day holds as much importance as our foundation and the first race of the Season a few months prior. Following our refined Points Systems for the Teams and the Pilots, we can finally show the results that we've collected on each." He declared as he used a small remote control to move the slides on his back.
"Combining all the points collected throughout the events, the winning Team of the 2048 Season is AG-Systems, with 26 Points in total. Second we have Qirex, with 23 Points. On the third position we have Auricom, with 22 Points collected, and lastly FEISAR, with 19 Points collected."
The Team of Belmondo stood up in unison from their chairs and exploded in the hall with euphoria upon hearing that they won the Title, while the rest had mixed reactions upon hearing that the Russian Team ended up Second despite all they did at most were dominating in Combat. This ended up to be a mutual sensation shared especially within the American Team, who had a very balanced presence throughout the racetracks instead of their rivals. The glares exchanged between McQueen and Flaubert at each end of the table were like knives for how sharp they were, sure that they were ready to make heavy claims against each other later tonight.
"Next the title of Champion, for the highest points collected, goes to Arial Tetsuo, with 18 Points collected! Second we have Kel Solaar, with 14 Points collected. The third position was hard to give since it was a tight tie between two Pilots, so we followed who had the most records beaten or held on each track, and we came to a fair conclusion. The third position goes to Sofia de la Rente, with 11 Points."
"Sofia! They called you! You're the third best Racer of the Season!" Barbara beamed at her, gently shaking the French Pilot to call her attention.
Sofia shook her head a moment and stared at her back with a puzzled look for a few seconds, then she opened her mouth to say something, but all she did was smile and stand up elegantly to get showered by the claps and the cheers from the crowd. Although they ended up last in the overall Season, they held their heads beside the First Pilot in that moment, and everyone on her Team couldn't be any happier about it.
The celebrations continued throughout the night in each Team's HQ present in Nova State City, while the next morning the listed winners received, during a global broadcast, their respective medals and shining trophies, proudly shimmering in the raised hands of their respective Champions.
Closing Ceremony, Nova State City, 10th of June 2048
Barbara looked up at the clean skies of Nova State City as the bright confetti filled the air just like the very first race months ago. The sight to her was beyond anything she had seen before in her life, an entire city all for them to get celebrated from.
The closing ceremony began with a wonderful parade with the eight Pilots of each Team driving down the major road of old Manhattan in duets of Speed and Fighter Classes respectively, with Belmondo watching down proudly at them from a high terrace present in one of the old buildings of the city centre. One of the large screens present in Time Square zoomed over his mature presence, while the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth accentuated even more the radiance of his smile in the sea of crystal clean pixels. He was at cloud nine just like his closest friends and colleagues Breakwater and Hoffman standing next to him. They looked first at each other first and then down at the road at the cheerful parade with equally satisfied glances, sharing pats and approving words with one another through the wide screen.
For once, Barbara saw nice and proud smiles from the faces of the Federation itself as well, although she couldn't see neither Lindsday nor her colleague in the whole burgundy group present at the lower balcony where Belmondo and the rest are. Understandably, she noted to herself, they were just Medics and not direct representatives such as those who stood there to clap at the next passage of the red and white AG ships of the Japanese Team.
Her mouth tilted slightly to a side, before she sighed quietly and focused on the lively atmosphere around them, already wondering when it'll be the next race, how many stories she'll share to her mother, and maybe how many more adventures she'll have on the American soil beside the friends she made along the way, sure that the rest of the twelve will remain united until the end.
Her gaze then ended up on the yellow Speed ship and the grey and blue Fighter ship piloted by Sofia and Paul respectively in their elegant stroll down the street, and joined the rest of the cheers and claps as they all stood up to salute their passage.
Indescribable emotions moved through her, although she could only outline them with one word - one promise she had made with all her heart.
"To our Future."