Faster Than Angels

[Ace3000]

The referenced album title of Part 34.4 was Fear of a Blank Planet by Porcupine Tree.

[s2_26.5: Part 34.5] A Fragile Mind

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<22120809>

Sunday, August 9th, 2212

Nokav Vertigo, Rocky Mountains, USA.

08:53:43

The previous day's qualifier had put Angelus in 2nd and 8th position for the race, which went without a hitch, thanks to the software engineers' security update, which gave the team an immunity to Crinale's viral warfare. Gareth's craft did need some alignments and fine-tuning done to fix the damage the virus did to it, but the craft was back to its optimal performance in time to post a competitive time. However, said competitive time was not the best time the craft could do.

"Tch, if only we had more time, I could have put in a better time." Gareth commented, "I didn't do the Xygen justice, I'm sorry."

"It's alright, just relax." Brandon replied. "You did what you could, we all did. The starting position is not the be-all-end-all, the race is what matters."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll be able to catch up to Kyoko... I think."

"That's the spirit! Now go on, the 5 minute warning should sound an-"

"Warning. 5 minutes remain until race begins. All pilots please move to the start line in your relative positions." The announcement sounded, cutting Brandon off just as he was mentioning said announcement.

"...ahem, as I was saying."

"Yeah, I'll get going now. See you on the other side of the race."

Gareth then ran off, heading for his craft, which was in position, ready for him to enter and get ready. Kyoko, on the other hand, was already in her craft, waiting for the race to start. But, for the first time since she flew for Angelus, she was scared. Syncline knew... of course they did, they seemed to know about a lot of things pertaining to this horrid league, that would explain her visits to Angelus itself.

However... what she could not forgive... was that they could not keep their mouths shut...

"And for that... they need to pay!"

3, 2, 1... GO!
<09:00:00_>
<nokav vertigo: short fwd_>
<race: lap 01 of 109_>

02. FUJ616.0.43.194 (#43 | Kyoko Fujisaki | AX2.0_r2)
04. ERI220.1.99.175 (#99 | Halvred Erikson | V.ult-2X1024)
08. ARD889.1.19.194 (#19 | Gareth Ardos | AX2.0_r2)
11. SCA308.0.7.329 (#7 | Lucia Scarlatti | F0-RA8/00095)
12. TUR847.1.13.329 (#13 | Leon Turner | F0-RA8/00127)

<strobo migraine | callasoiled_>

The craft shot off the line, and as usual, Crinale set about attacking the competition, gaining offensive weapons to make their gradual climb towards the lead. Fortunately, Gareth was able to avoid most of their barrages, catching up to Hal and Kyoko, who were in 2nd and 3rd respectively. However, when he caught up to them, what he saw shocked and confused him.

When the race started, Kyoko's higher thrust Xygen rocketed away from Hal's 'Vulture', but she let him catch up to her once he had gotten his speed up. Once he passed her, she began her revenge. She ditched her speed-based racing technique and became more violent towards the red and purple craft. She was actively trying to eliminate Hal. Since it was just her, Hal decided to ignore and evade her, aiming for the top position. Unfortunately, Kyoko was having none of it, as her faster, more agile craft could easily keep up with him without breaking a sweat, where she continued to fire her weapons at him. It was getting to the point where if Hal didn't stop ignoring her, he would be eliminated fairly quickly.

"...Kyoko? Are... you okay?" Gareth spoke, after catching up to the two craft battling.

"Perfectly fine. Why do you ask?" Came the reply of the 'faceless' pilot.

"You... seem to be... how should I put this... in the mindset of Crinale."

"Please, they're worse. I'm just delivering some well-deserved revenge."

"'Well deserved'? What did they do? ...Oh, whatever, it's not important, just let them go."

"You let go. Keep that lead spot warm for me, I'll be there once Syncline learns to keep their damn mouth shut about sh*t they don't understand!"

"Rockets"

That point blank attack pushed Hal back, but he wasn't going to let that defeat him.

"Missiles"

He attacked back, impeding Kyoko's progress. Due to that battle commencing, Gareth decided to heed Kyoko's advice, and blast out in front, slowly reeling in the lead spot, but not before taking the full brunt of the heavier Vulture, as Hal's more violent solo racing style took over. The attack required some quick thinking on the Angelus pilot to regain control from the ram. However, he was back on track, and resumed aiming for 1st place.

Many laps later, though, the inevitable happened.

<contender eliminated_>

Someone had been eliminated. Gareth, who was in a battle of racing skill and strategies with the craft in first place, naturally assumed Kyoko had finally eliminated Hal.

'Tch, what's with her? What did they do to her to cause her to go haywire?' He thought, before speaking to his teammate. "Hey, Kyoko, you finally get him?"

The response was... not what he expected.

"Ah... about that..."

------------
09:06:47

As Gareth shot off with an amazing acceleration, Kyoko and Hal continued their battle, trading blow after blow. Despite the overall violent nature of their battle, their attacks were quite different, Kyoko taking advantage of the Xygen's light weight and agility to dodge and dart about, making it difficult for Hal to hit her, while also refraining from letting him escape her grasp, bringing him back down to where she was to resume the battle. Hal's technique was more direct, making use of his Vulture's heavy frame to, as well as firing weapons at the white, agile craft, ram into said craft whenever he got the chance to.

'Khh, what's with her?' Hal thought, 'Usually she'd be shying away from violence, not taking part in it.'

Naturally, since he was not aware of what Kat had done, he had no idea for Kyoko's reasons for attacking him. Nevertheless, he continued defending himself, but the constant hold ups of being attacked in the first place brought the two pilots down in the ranks, albeit not by much. He kept his defences up, while continuing to go all out on Kyoko.

Kyoko kept forcing weapon after weapon into the purple and red craft, becoming increasingly annoyed in the process.

"Tch, come on! How much sh*t do I have to pump into you?! I should have done enough damage to eliminate you already, even if you've been absorbing weapons!"

Her increasing annoyance was stemming from two sources. The first was the more obvious fact that Hal was not as defensively weak as she had initially anticipated. He could cover his bases quite nicely, something she naturally didn't see due to all of their other races that she had observed showed the two working together to aid the other. With this race, though, she could see Hal's natural racing talent, and close-up from her insistence on eliminating him.

The second source of her annoyance was her craft. Or more specifically, the shielding system. Another reason why she thought Hal should have been defeated by that point was the fact that her own shields were nearing the end of their usage. She was about to be eliminated. Or so she thought. As she ran over a weapon pad, the image that displayed in her HUD gave her a rather difficult choice.

She could potentially go for the kill and fire the Plasma at Hal, but also run the risk of missing. Alternatively, she could absorb it for a rather sizeable and much needed increase to her shield energy.

"...Agh, screw it! Haaaiiii-YA!"

She charged and fired the plasma right at Hal... who took the hit, but was still not yet out. Although, he was dangling on an extremely thin wire, having his shield energy percentage go down to just single digits. As the white craft passed him, he unleashed something that was only seen twice before.

"Im-flash"

The super-weapon of Syncline was a homing projectile weapon similar in design to a missile. However, it, like Angelus' Railgun, dealt no direct damage. The weapon temporarily messed with the hud and other visual and aural inputs, effectively blinding the pilot to the outside, as well as not allowing warnings from incoming weapons to be announced to them. Kyoko was, reasonably, hitting the walls, removing more of her shielding. And, just as the weapon wore off...

"Bomb"

Instinctively, the girl flicked her right wrist, making the light craft sideshift, avoiding the explosive device by a minuscule amount. As she soared past the failed attempt to eliminate her, she let out a sigh, passing Hal and taking a particularly sharp corner. Hal had learned how she acted through corners by watching her as they battled, however, and was ready to strike at the opportune moment.

"Plasma"
<contender eliminated_>

A short yelp from Kyoko was the final and only thing that she was able to do, ending her race at the hands of Hal.