Faster Than Angels

Might have broken things, please standby...

[FTA|s2.9_F] s3_0.0

---

<22130131>

Sunday, January 31st, 2213

Parking lot of a convenience store, Perth, Australia.

13:48:07

The low roar of a certain vehicle filled the air, and stopped just before its target: A black Angelus Razer.X.

"ANGEL01... that's it... DESTROY THAT CAR!" Chris Scarborough yelled.

POW!

BOOM!

The turret hit its mark. Crinale's T9-CA5 grav-tank annihilated Brandon Smith's beloved car... right in front of Brandon himself.

"[gasp]! YOU...!" He could only manage, ducking behind an aisle. "You will pay for this, I thought you said you 'wouldn't mess with me outside of the races'!?" He added, calling someone he thought was related to the attack.

"Crap. What the hell do you want?" Alexandra responded.

"WHAT. THE. HELL do you think you're doing!?" Brandon yelled back.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't give me that 'What do you mean?' crap! You destroyed my car! I spent years building and modifying it, shaping it into the road racer I loved!"

"Hmph, you should stop your emotional attachment to that. It was a machine. I didn't feel bad when my car got destroyed. You know, the one that's now sitting at the bottom of the sea underneath Omega Harbour? [sigh], in any case, I actually do have no idea what you mean. I destroyed your car?"

"One of your grav-tanks blew it up!"

"One of my... oh. What, the T9-CA5?"

"Yes! That! The only grav-tank that was made under the Crinale name!"

"The T9-CA5 was made under Antonov's Crinale, not my Crinale. As soon as I was back as Director, I stopped construction of and destroyed all Antonov-era craft, apart from the F12000 craft."

"Then, are you saying that it might have something to do with Antonov?"

"Yes. I'm assuming you're hiding from it?"

"Yeah."

"Where?"

"A convenience store."

"Oh. Well, that won't stop a tank, as I'm sure you are aware. In any case, I can't help you any further. Goodbye." Alex said, ending the call.

When that happened, Brandon just stood up and walked over to the exit, where he saw the gunner open his hatch and stand up.

However, before Chris could speak...

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM!

The tank blew up spectacularly. The first explosion caused no external damage, but did cause a failure of the mechanics of the vehicle, and as such, it fell to the ground. Immediately after that, there were 3 more explosions before a massive blast that ripped the craft apart and threw Brandon backwards.

When he got up, he found the wreckage of the grav-tank, still in flames. He could do nothing but stand there.

'YES!' He thought 'Viktor... Chris... he's finally dead! The second dark age of the AGRC is OVER!'

Suddenly, though, he stopped, processing the scene burned into his retinas. There, faintly, almost completely disappeared, was a trail of smoke. He followed the trail back with his eyes, ending up looking at the roof of a 2 or 3 story building. On the roof was a figure, holding what looked like an RPG Launcher. They looked at Brandon and, seeing him looking at them, turned and walked away.

Brandon, seeing them gone, just happened to turn his head, and immediately discovered the identity of his saviour. Sitting outside the building's entrance, sporting a new red and black paint job...

Was the only ARD Tsunami in existence.

Instantly, he walked up to it, checking out the new shiny paintjob.

'Huh, looks like she's taking care of it quite well' He thought, taking out his phone and opening the machine up, conducting a quick check-up.

He couldn't look for long, as he heard the ex-international spy nearing the exit, so he quickly locked the car up and left, quickly hiding in an alley between the building the Tsunami was sitting outside and another. The woman, now looking completely different, opened the door, which lifted the canopy. Getting in and closing the door and canopy, she started it up, floored it through a 180° drift and accelerated away.

Watching her leave, Brandon was now stuck with the predicament of getting back to HQ. Eventually, Brandon decided to just call up an employee to come pick him up.

------------
Unknown location

Unknown time

"I trust that the Darkwater Plan is progressing smoothly?" One of the two men inquired.

"Naturally," The other replied, the more calculating, less emotional sounding of them. "The second phase is close to complete implementation. The only drawback was, as you know, the destruction of the SG_R-000. However, more can be manufactured, so it is not a complete loss."

"Good. I am monitoring our progress, and it seems that it will be very successful."

"Indeed."

"The only thing I see that may impede the Darkwater Plan is one Angelus R&D, however, I doubt they will be able to stand against the SG_X-043."

"If they do defeat it, I have a multitude of backup plans and other phases to the Plan that may do the job. Victory will be assured."

https://i.imgur.com/3aTQlug.png

<load: "S3_F12000_THEME_01"_>

The referenced album title of Part 40 was W:/2016ALBUM/ by deadmau5.

[FTA|s3_1.0: Part 41.0] The Beginning of the End

---

Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo, Japan

"'The universe has a wonderful sense of humour. The trick is learning how to take a joke.'

"I believed that right until it blew up in my face.

"My story started a long time ago, but this is where it becomes relevant.

"The world thrives on one of two things. The first is an unhealthy obsession with Anti-Gravity racing. I do understand why it would be popular, but not to this degree! It's quite off putting, to be honest. The second? Information. That's where I come in. See, everyone has pieces of information they would pay to obtain. I gather this information and sell it to those who both require it and, of course, have the necessary funds to purchase it. This is an Information Broker.

"2215 was the single most eventful year in my life, both due to the information I had obtained, and the recent... hobby I had taken up. With information as my primary weapon, I shall be the sole individual to bring the Anti-Gravity racing world to it's knees."

------------
Day 6.

01:14:03

In the dark alley, the man lay in wait, for when his contact would eventually arrive. Soon, the sound of a car filled the alley, however, he kept his head down, leaning against the wall. The driver exited and walked over to the man, who in turn pushed off the wall and walked toward him, the headlights of the car bathing him in light, giving a full view of his appearance. The driver faltered for a moment, before closing the distance between them.

"Codeword." Was the first word to come out of his mouth.

The man who waited replied with "Anarchy-46, Harmony-96."

"Very well, then. Now, the info."

"Do you have the necessary funds?"

The driver pulled out a wad of cash, and held it up. The man held out his hand, which prompted a quizzical expression to appear on the driver's face.

"Oh, please. You have a car. I don't. You can catch up to me if I run, but I won't. I'm a very honest man."

The driver then slowly placed the money in his outstretched hand. He then flicked through the notes, counting them.

"Fantastic, that's enough. Now..."

He dropped the folder full of sheets of paper from under his arm into his other hand, before holding it out to the driver, who took it and started flicking through the data.

"Alright, thanks."

"Any time."

With that, the man got in his car and departed, the other man leaving several minutes afterwards, a smooth, successful transaction completed.

------------
Day 7.

12:39:28

In a certain apartment complex, a man sat typing rapidly at one computer, with many others sitting around, running programs and downloading data. He checked the clock, then stopped the programs, allowing them to download the last bit of data, before shutting them down, unplugging the small flash drive from the computer he sat at, and departed the building, heading outside to the city.

Outside, the man made a beeline for his destination, a vending machine that dispensed food. Throughout the entirety of that day, his facial expression was the same: unsmiling. When he reached the vending machine, he fished out some change, pushed the coins in the slot, and jabbed a button below a can of oden. The machine sent the can to the bottom, where he was able to take it out and eat the contents.

That man was known as Rei Kurokawa, an information broker that had started working in Ikebukuro several days earlier. He was a fairly tall man, his attire consisting of an all black suit, black tech sunglasses and, occasionally, a long black coat. Because of the sunglasses, not one person could see his whole face, which was intentional on his part. The glasses provided a secondary function, though. It acted as a miniature computer, able to display data that he had downloaded, so he could read it, study it, while he was on the move. This proved useful, as he was investigating a certain subject, his major project.

Before he came to work in Japan, though, Rei went by a different name, had a different job and lived a different life. However, that didn't matter to him anymore, as he had, for the most part, put that past behind him. The cause of him dropping his previous life was all attributed to something he briefly mentioned in passing, an event he called "The Cataclysm". Nothing about that event was explained, and the only people who did know about it were those he had left behind.

While he ate, he studied a report pertaining to that certain subject, one published several decades ago. It was in a surprising amount of detail, explaining all the back-alley deals, corruption and terrorism a certain group his subject covered had created. Naturally, the existence of the document meant that the group was forcibly disbanded. However, he sensed that they hadn't completely been rid of this world and still continued to exist, even deeper and more hidden than before.

That was the true intentions of his investigation, to pull them out of hiding and give every last one of them the justice he thought they deserved. In addition to that one report, he had lifted terabytes of data from top secret servers around the world and yet, it was still not enough, as he was still pulling data.

7 surviving members had been brought to his attention through the data he pulled, however, he had reason to believe there were a couple more than just that. That was the reason for his unsmiling expression: His knowledge of the group surviving on, spreading corruption throughout the globe.

He poked around the can as he read, then looked down into it. It was empty. With a click of his tongue, he shoved the can into one of the recycling bins beside the vending machine and headed back for his apartment. As he was walking back, one of many phones he had started ringing. Pulling it out from his pocket, he answered it.

"Kurokawa Delivery?"

"Can I get the usual?" His caller spoke.

"'The usual'? Fine, you know the price. What will it be this time?"

"Ah, it's not for me, it's for my company."

"Well, I don't care who it's for, just as long as I get paid for it."

"Of course you will."

"Right, what are you after, then, specifically?"

"Specifications, technical data on a certain product of a competitor company of ours."

"A little more specific?"

"I'll send you the details later."

"Fine. Later."

Hanging up, Rei entered the small apartment in the complex. As soon as he was in, he booted up his computers all at once, through a single control panel, a low hum filling the room. As they loaded their booting procedures, he pulled a small storage device from his pocket and plugged it in the desktop computer sitting in the centre of the back wall. A couple new lines were added to the boot screen, before it instantly changed to a desktop.

Rei sat at that computer, started a few processes, and started reading his mail. True to the word of the caller, there was an encrypted mail sent to him, containing the details of his company and the information what they required. However, what he saw in the decrypted message made him pull his phone out and rapidly mash at the keypad, calling the man back.

"What exactly are you pulling here?" He asked calmly, yet with a subtle hint of fury.

"I... don't understand?" Came the reply.

"You understand perfectly. Let me make this clear to you. I'm never getting involved in this. You can take your corruption and shove it in someone else's face. You hear me? I will not accept anything involving that. Now, do not call me again."

Hanging up and tossing the phone aside, Rei just stared angrily at the decrypted message, at the information he was provided...

"My company is F12000 team Gravitesse Anti-Gravité. We require data on Goteki 45's racing craft so we can develop updates to our craft in order to gain the advantage over our competitors."

https://i.imgur.com/67iWS8Z.png

<load: "S3_ARCHANGEL_THEME_01"_>

The referenced song title of Part 41 was The Beginning of the End by Nine Inch Nails.

[FTA|s3_2.1: Part 42.1] Rumours

---

<22150205>

Sunday, February 5th, 2215

Wolstenholme Point, Devon, England.

11:21:32

A new year, a new F12000 season. Several things had changed between the end of the 2212 season and the start of 2215. Most notably, the establishment of the Anti-Gravity Purity Alliance. It had started off as an alliance between two former teams, Auricom and AG Systems, both of whom had left the league within one month of one another in 2213. Over the following months, the Alliance had grown to include Jennter and Angelus, yet those two teams were still competing.

New rules were added for the 2214 season. Due to Angelus, Syncline and a couple other teams' Super Weapons dealing no direct damage, a new rule was added effectively banning them. To combat the rule, Angelus kept with its electromagnetic-based weaponry and developed a defensive cloak. Syncline and the other teams also developed new Super Weapons for the new league.

Similarities between the two seasons were also prevalent. For the two years after Kyoko revealed herself as Tarah Andrews, and was pulled off the team due to her being infected by The Condition, Angelus continued to race with only Gareth Ardos, the former second pilot. Another similarity was one that had shocked Brandon 2 years ago. The one in charge of and had announced the official start of the F12000 there in Wolstenholme Point, along with both the 2213 and '14 seasons, was...

"Welcome, everyone, to the 2215 season of the F12000 Professional Anti-Gravity Racing League!" Chris Scarborough began.

The Executive Chairman of the F12000 Anti-Gravity Racing Commission had somehow survived being caught up in the tank explosion that happened in Perth. Unsurprisingly, that had left Brandon speechless upon seeing that man introduce the 2213 F12000 League.

"Before we begin the race, there is something I would like to set straight. There have been some rumours and theories regarding this season. For now, I can confirm at least one of them."

At that point, two craft rose up from the pit to the starting grid, about half an hour before the race was scheduled to start.

<go | andy hunter°_>

From the first craft's grid, position 7, two similarly dressed individuals stood beneath the monstrous craft. While both of them wore a Standardised F12000 Specification Racing Suit, the girl with short, slightly sticking out black hair wore a pair of classic light blue-tinted sunglasses, and stood with her hands on her hips with a rather smug look on her face. In contrast, the short haired man, wearing an ushanka, bore a slight scowling expression, and seemed like he'd rather be somewhere else.

Upon the craft and two apparent pilots coming into view, Chris continued.

"That rumour being... Tigron Enterprises' return to AG racing!"

Brandon's usual smile had broken. His face had instantly transformed into a scowl, and his hands clenched into fists.

"...no... Not. Again. The FX350 was enough. Now I have to deal with them directly for this entire season!?"

The thought of having to deal with two heavy-shielded craft at once brought a rather strong fear to the man, and he let out an instinctive shudder.

------------

Meanwhile, in another certain team's control room, upon seeing the team return once more, the race manager spat out their drink, narrowly avoiding any critical systems.

"Call Felix. Now! Code Nightmare Fire Black... GO!"

------------

"Now, we have half an hour until the race starts, so our datacasters may proceed with their pre-race shows! But first, a word from our sponsors."

As Chris concluded his introduction to the 2215 season, Brandon had remained in his pose, looking angrily at the two craft on the track. As the team spent the rest of the half hour performing final checks and ensuring everyone was ready, one of the analysts sitting in the control room walked over to Brandon.

"Uh, hey... you alright?"

"I'm thinking... leave me alone." Brandon's reply was in a rather controlled, emotionless tone, as if he was making a conscious attempt to suppress his anger, as he continued to watch the scene unfolding on the track.

On the grid, various datacast reporters had rushed over to get their interviews with the two new pilots. After a hoard of intermixed questions, the girl raised a hand to stop them, speaking in a heavy Russian accent.

"My name is Natalia Kireyeva, I am... lead pilot for Tigron. No team shall be shown mercy, we are here for ultimate victory. Although, looking at some certain competition, it would be easier than we thought. 'Pure Racing', hah! What a load of crap. The only way to effectively win is to annihilate the weakling competition! 'Pure' racing is not taking it seriously, not to mention that 'Pure' racing by their definition does not even exist, weapons have always been part of AG racing!"

Finally, after that, the race was about to start. All the other craft rose up on the grid, including Angelus' sole craft, piloted by Gareth Ardos. Upon seeing the craft ready to set off, he simply picked up the comms system, and spoke just five words.

"...avoid Tigron, by any means."

3, 2, 1... GO!

<12:00:00_>
<wolstenholme point: med rev_>
<race: lap 01 of 64_>

02.	SCA308.0. 7.329	# 7	Lucia Scarlatti	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536
...
05.	ARD889.0.19.194	#19	Gareth Ardos	Angelus	AX2.2_r9
...
07.	KIR311.0.67.297	#67	Natalia Kireyeva	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4
08.	TUR847.1.13.329	#13	Leon Turner	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536
...
13.	VAL027.1.66.297	#66	"Valkyria"	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4

The instant the craft shot off the line, Brandon's eyes widened.

"...that's impossible! How could that even...?"

That initial confusion had changed into realisation, which caused Brandon to have yet another moment of anger at the Russian team, slamming the desk with his fists.

"...of... course. Straight back into the illegal sh*t, eh? Not even one fair f*cking race!?"

Several of the technicians in the room looked back as Brandon yelled out.

"Brandon, chill out. What's up?"

"Bring up the regulations, now! ...P-Please, sorry."

A few taps of a screen later, the official rules and regulations were brought up. Brandon began to scroll through the document at rapid speed, until he reached Article 3, detailing the regulations for the craft's power unit.

"Blah blah blah, type limits, size regulations, power control, minimum power out- wait."

Turning to the rest of the people in the room, he asked a rather simple question.

"...where's the rest?"

"The rest?"

"Yeah, there was a subsection in Article 3, Section 2. From memory, it said 'Power systems must be a single unit. Systems such as Hive-type or cluster units are prohibited.'"

"Huh... that sounds familiar."

"Yeah... tell you what, bring up the regulations, this time revision 2214."

"Okay."

Bringing up the previous year's regulations, Brandon scrolled back down to Article 3, finding the phase he had, indeed seen.

"Article 3, Section 2, Subsection 4. 'Power systems are required to be comprised of a singular primary unit. Systems such as Hive-type or Cluster Thrust Units are prohibited.' It's right here! Those bastards secretly eliminated that phrase from the regulations... for what reason!? Just to let Tigron back in!? To legalise their technology just for that!? Bullsh*t!"

Like Pirelli is making tyres for Mercedes?

(jk)

Hahaha!

---

The referenced album title of Part 42.1 was Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.

[FTA|s3_3.1: Part 43.1] First Contact

---

Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo, Japan

"Why do people race? That is a simple answer: There are many reasons. Mostly, it is due to the racers' love of racing. Other times, it's for the fame, the money. If it's due to that, the pure art of racing is lost. With those that love to race, however, there are a couple of subsidiary reasons. They may do so to relieve some stress or anger, or to prove that they are a good racer. Other times, it may be to sort their own thoughts, as a way to unwind..."

------------
Day 10.

21:39:23

A man stood outside a parking garage, wearing a black suit and a full length coat, which flapped in the wind. Unlocking one of them, he opened the passenger's side door of a sporty looking car, taking a full face helmet from the seat. He put it on, pulling the face part down instantly, ensuring no-one saw his face as he pulled his shades off. He threw the glasses into the glove box and closed the door, walking over to the driver's side, getting in the car proper.

He turned on the electrics and checked his route. Once he had input the destination on the GPS, he brought up the car's internal computer, inputting the values he had received from the computer program. Once that was done, he engaged the ignition, starting the car up, before putting it in gear and driving off for his current destination.

After the global depression in the 2170s and early 80s, and AG technology for sporting purposes had started to make a comeback, street racing had also made a comeback in Japan. This was only made more prominent by the release of an amass of sports cars produced all around the world. Japanese car manufacturers brought back new, up-to-date models of their much older sports models, which was referred to as the "retro sports boom". Nissan brought back their Silvia, Z and Skyline GT-R models, Toyota began production once more of their Supra and MR2 models, while bringing new cars to the roster, Honda, their Type-R range, Subaru with STi and most recently, Mazda, with help from Angelus, brought back their RX sports car, this time bringing the 'RX' name back to its roots since the RX-9, the car being powered by one of two co-developed rotary engines.

The car the man was driving was not known to anyone, meaning it was either an extremely rare or a very new model. However, it looked to be a quite fast model indeed. His location was near to his home of Ikebukuro, Shomaru Pass in Hanno, Saitama. Driving to the pass, the man's style seemed to be very civilised, as if he had never raced in a day in his life. However, that man was confident enough to take on the fastest downhill racer of that pass.

------------
21:43:54

Shomaru Pass, Hanno, Saitama, Japan

It was a late night on a Saturday, so most members of the street racing team Redlines were out on Shomaru, meeting up to hang out, race, or just otherwise play about on the course. At the top of the pass, talking to one member of the team and personal friend, was Kazuya Iwasaki, the leader of the team, regarded by many people as the fastest down Shomaru Pass.

"...well, surely it was a crapbox, but it just caught my eye... oh, hold on. Yeah?"

His conversation was cut off by someone calling him, it was someone standing by the bottom of the pass.

"Someone's coming up the pass, quite quickly I might add."

"Not one of ours?"

"Nope."

"Interesting... we'll have to see if they're travelling or racing. Thanks."

Putting his phone away, the man continued his conversation, right up until the sound of a car's engine ended it.

"That sounds... interesting." Kazuya noted, looking out towards the pass.

As he did, he saw the car come up into view. It was unlike anything he had seen before. Like everyone else, he did not recognise the car being driven, as it drove up to the parking lot they were standing in and stopped. The door opened up and along the car's roof, the helmeted driver getting out.

"Iwasaki Kazuya?" He asked.

Kazuya stepped aside, making himself seen so as to not be blocked by his friend. "That's me. Who are you?"

"Call me... 'Archangel'. I've heard of your status, and I wish to put it to the test."

Kazuya chuckled. "Are you challenging me?"

"If you are the fastest down here, yes."

The man, despite the seemingly rookie mistake of challenging the fastest right out of the blue, did have an aura of seriousness about him, as if he were completely confident he could win. It seemed Kazuya had either picked up on that or wanted to teach the new guy a lesson, because...

"Fine. Challenge accepted."

"Fantastic."

Kazuya turned to his friend. "Can you do the countdown? I'll get everyone to move out the way for us."

"I... really!? Are you really going to race him!?"

"Sceptical of my racing talent?"

"No, it's just..."

Moving him away from the man in the helmet, Kazuya's friend voiced his opinion, whispering.

"Are you really going to waste your time on owning him?"

"Yeah, might as well. I'll show him how to not mess with the fastest!"

"...you know... you're right." He smiled. "Go get him."

With that, Kazuya contacted all the members, telling them to get back and move out of the way, due to a race beginning. As they did so, the two racers lined up to start. Getting okays from members situated from all over the course, the countdown began, as they revved their engines.

"Counting down! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! GO!"

------------

Driver 'Archangel' Team N/A Car Unknown Year Unknown, possibly 2200s Type Sports, 2-door Layout M4 Plate ·4 07, classification 390 Colour Black Engine Unknown modified engine, 332PS Weight Unknown Custom Parts "Archangel" Body Kit, Unknown engine modification, Azure Blue Laser headlights, Unknown other systems.

vs.

岩崎和哉 (Iwasaki Kazuya) Redlines Mazda RX-14 (FJ3S) 2212 Sports Coupé, 2-door FR 93-25, classification 356 Vintage Red Modified 1.6L 2-Rotor Twin-turbo 16X-REW/A, 340PS 1137kg Mazdaspeed Front Bumper, Mazdaspeed Spoiler, 2.0 Mazdaspeed turbo gauge, Mazdaspeed muffler, bucket racing seats.

Arc: NJRS - #001
Title: History Repeats Itself

Wolstenholme Point, Devon, United Kingdom
Sunday, 5th February 2215
10:21.11

The two new Jennter JAG-F12.212/5 craft were disassembled in the Jennter pits, ready for routine checks prior to the first race of the season.
Nico Bovier was found scratching his head while looking at the ships - Their appearance being much more sleek and less intimidating as the years prior. The team dropped from the top to the low midfield.
"It is embarassing" he sighed "They cut our wings - quite literally."

"At least many bits of the existing control systems were recycled, the focus was laid on aerodynamics the past years, but the unique feature of the previous F12.212 series craft was the complete handling package." noted Aurora, the newest spec AG racing android and second pilot of the team this year.
"Yep, yep." sighed Nico while nodding "This company can do so much, but building AG craft that actually turn is not in our hands at the moment."

"Checkup complete!" announced the lead engineer, a new face at the front of the team in form of a slender and surprisingly young woman "I'd request everyone to not stand too close to the craft, we'll test the engines now."

>
>Jennter JAG-ESS v8.7b
>booting -\|/-\|/-
>0% ... 21% ... 34% ... 46% ... 86% ... 98% ... 99% ... 100%
>Bootup complete
>Type: Jennter JAG-F12.212/5
>

"Conducting a system check. Jordan, please proceed." said engineer commanded.
The systems mechanic Jordan took a seat at the control tower located in the pits, it didn't take long for the basic tests.
"Systems respond." was his lethargic response, laying back in his seat "Yes, the thrust vectoring too."
"That's no thrust vectoring, this is a poor excuse." the woman spouted "But I am sincerely looking forward to our newest development in pipe!"

"Fine, time to start the engines." she continued with her protocol and opened a holographic output of the computer screen to check the values while looking at the engines themselves.
"Engines starting up." commented Jordan. The noise of thrust laser engines was rather inaudible in an open space like the Jennter pits. However, there was a lot of heat radiating from the wolfram heat shields installed right behind the exhaust outlets.
"We register 3,650 Kilonewtons peak force, as it should be." reported Jordan "Shutting down engines and initiating aftercooling process."
The woman clapped her hands in exitement "These are beautiful machines, even if they can't take any sharper corner."

"So cynical..." uttered Nico, who was spectating the whole process "May I ask who you are?"
She looked at him bewildered "I have been around for some months now, I think we even met some times?"
Nico couldn't be helped but look irritated at her for his obliviousness "Excuse me, I have been extremely busy with...a lot of things since several years."
"Aaaanyway" the engineer continued "I am Linda Greyson! I have been appointed to be the lead engineer of your team after the end of the last season. I know, it was all a bit sudden with these rule changes..."
"Indeed, but are you able to deal with everything?" Nico asked "I don't really care about anything else."
Linda smiled in a way that was both warm and cocky "I hope so, the standard you set wasn't particularly high."

She immediatly turned around and left, appearing to be busy according to schedule.
Nico was left baffled by that performance "What an attitude..." he sighed and decided to let it drop for now "Well, I think she should be able to do her job then. I have faith in our personnel office...."


11:58.37
"As you may realized, Tigron is on the grid. Avoid them at all cost, you know that our shields are the weekest of the entire field." instructed Nico his pilots prior to race start.
"I fear this will be a very expending race, in doubt we need to activate EFF more than once." has been the feedback by Patrick through the radio transmission.
The craft were idling on the grid after being lifted to their respective starting positions.
Pilots fixated on the start lights without counting the seconds they experienced as eternities.

12:00.00
3, 2, 1 ... GO!!!
Lap 1 of 64

The Jennter crafts of Patrick Rouser and Aurora took a quick start from P6 and 9. Way in its first iterations, the thrust lasers of Jennter have been sluggish enough to loose races right at every start, but all systems invented to counter this effect have not been banned yet. But nulling all instructions, the Tigron craft shot right past the white and orange ships anyway, prior to the first corner being passed.
"Yo what the hell was that!?" yelled Patrick into the team radio.
"This will be an expending race indeed." sighed Aurora.

The JF12.212 was not suited to race in the midfield. Taking a lot of damage from combat, both pilots had to go through the pits after eight, respectively nine laps.
"We loose a lot of pace this way, plus I can't deny that I touched the walls more than once by now." was Patricks sweatful report.
"In doubt use EFF, the frame should handle at least one use. However, it may even be better to use it more than once, elimination could become ugly." was the reply of Davide Ferriucci, his race engineer.
Patrick was busy to wrestle the Jennter craft through a tighter corner section only to gasp in return "What do you mean!?"
Davide did not respond, while his pilot collected two unlucky missile hits and got covered in 'shield energy low' warnings.

"While connecting to the ships systems I was able to register some wear to the main frame by now." chatted Aurora into the team radio.
Hearing this through the various channels, Nico took over the communication "What did you just say?"
"The frame itself is wearing down. I may remind you that this is breach of Article 6 Secti-" Aurora began to explain calmly while flying, but was quickly interrupted by an incited Nico "Impossible!"

Linda was watching over this scene and cited the section to herself "Article 6 Section 1a: 'A metallurgic-based main frame of the homologated craft may not experience a deformation degree exceeding the absolute of 0,01 for any dimension.'
Section 1b: 'The EI of all materials under all six degrees of freedom must conform to carry three times the load of a peak force equalling the ships mass at 500 g.'
Section 2: 'Composite materials fall under individual regulations, defined during the homologation process.'
Are they not observing these rules...?"


It was just around the same time that Auroras craft got approached by a rival, ready to fire it's super weapon.
"Oh no...I am using EFF!" she announced. The opponent fired and just briefly before the pulse of pure energy could save Aurora - the weapon hit.
There is a marginal time frame in that EFF surges all of the ships energy, before it recharges to a minimum prior to unleashing a wall of energy surrounding the ship. It was just unfortunate this time, but the damage done should not have been possible.

The craft disintegrated and spread over the track, the safety cell cockpit couldn't be made out by the blank eye.
"Aurora!" screamed Nico, witnessing these pictures from the live feed. The rescue process has not been initiated, as there was no signal sent from the safety cell to the drones.
Nico took over the communication with Patrick "This is Nico, retire the ship, return to the pits immediatly and carefully."
"I just flew past the wreckage, what happened!?" Patrick was in disbelieve, but followed order, ending an anyway frustrating race for him.

He tossed his helmet out of the cockpit before climbing out of it and marched directly towards Nico.
The pilot was furious "Are you telling me that you are cheating on safety standards!?"
Nico was just dumbfounded, but unlike Patrick, he had nobody to be angry at, all he could utter was "We don't know right now."
"Oh sure and when will you? The craft pretty much perished!" Patrick kept going on.
"I understand your concern. I swear I didn't know of this! Why are they not red-flagging the race goddammmit?!" Nico sweared, he was worried about Aurora and the core she carried.
Linda entered the confrontation "Likely because she is only a robot, a machine like the craft she was piloting."

Nico couldn't be bothered with that and turned away. Glarring into the distance to think.

'This is critical, we look like a bunch of wankers.'

Arc: NJRS - #002
Title: Lying in Deceit

>
>emergency process initiated
>counterbooting
>Jennter JKI-AGPP v2.0 Aurora
>System Check Commencing ------____
>63/100%
>System Check Completed
>Status Organic Hull: Damaged
>Status Skeleton: Critical - Stable
>Status AI: Okay
>

Aurora woke up surrounded by thick, black smoke, if she had lungs, she would be dead by now.
Occasionally a craft brushing past was audible, but her first worry was to release herself from the safety harness of what used to be the cockpit of the Jennter JAG-F12.212/15. The whole front section of the cockpit got ripped off, Aurora was able to make out the surface of the track, right in front of her. The shell came to a rest on it's shoulder, making escape even more difficult.
She ripped out the cords extending from the craft into her body, her arms and neck. However, as the android tried to push over the harness, her right arm locked.

It is a bit like a feeling of pain, when mechanical components pierce through cables and lock up in an unnatural way. Her right shoulder was damaged, likely through some debries from the initial impact.
Her memory was lacking, due to the emergency reboot, the high forces of the actual craft bursting up triggered it. But it didn't feel hard to Aurora to imagine what happened.
"It always hits the right Jennter pilots, it seems." she whispered, analysing her situation.
Rocking on the harness, she finally managed to find the right spot to trigger the mechanical release, letting her plummet onto the road.
Swiftly trying to get up, she impuls of a nearby tossed bumb knocked her over again. Still being mostly covered by the smoke of the crafts remains, the other pilots likely didn't see her.
Aurora tried her best to get up yet again, but finally the point came where she realized that most of her right leg was gone. That, she reasoned, probably happened shortly after the front section of the cockpit got teared off.

The android kept crawling, into any direction, as long as it may means safety. She soon left the dark clouds of smoke from buring carbon composites, oil and lithium cells and to her delight, Nico was already at the right side of the track, watching out for her pilot.
"Here she is!" he cheered, spotting the injuried android crawling in his direction, waving over his team members.
Nico tied a rope he brought with him to the trackside around himself "You'll pull me up when I say ready, alright?"
His team commonly agree, excepting one member. "Wait, Mr Bovier, it's too dangerous!" voiced Linda her concern.

He just threw back a glare at Linda "You don't know what dangerous is."
With these words he swung around the barrier and glided down along the track wall, for an eight metre drop.

At the bottom he ran over to Aurora and tied her to the rope as well. Fortunatly damaged robots are a bit more robust than injuried people.
Giving the signal, they both were dragged up along the barrier again.


15:43.56
"We didn't think ahead far enough expecting that you'd end up like this during the weekend." said Nico, looking over the damaged bodywork of Aurora.
"No worries, I am in no critical situation. It is just uncomfortable when some frequently used components don't work along." she stoichally responded.
Nico smiled "We'll patch you up and put you on the earliest flight back to Düsseldorf. I'll make sure that enough replacement parts are stocked up."
He was about to leave her cabin. "Master" she asked "Why did you put yourself in danger, to safe me?"
Nico looked at her over his shoulder "What are your dreams?"

The referenced song title of Part 43.1 was First Contact by Omni Trio.

[FTA|s3_2.2: Part 42.2] Never Trust Tigron

---

<22150205>

Sunday, February 5th, 2215

Wolstenholme Point, Devon, England.

<12:00:00_>
<wolstenholme point: med rev_>
<race: lap 01 of 64_>

02.	SCA308.0. 7.329	# 7	Lucia Scarlatti	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536
...
05.	ARD889.0.19.194	#19	Gareth Ardos	Angelus	AX2.2_r9
...
07.	KIR311.0.67.297	#67	Natalia Kireyeva	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4
08.	TUR847.1.13.329	#13	Leon Turner	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536
...
13.	VAL027.1.66.297	#66	"Valkyria"	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4

<silicon | noisia_>

The craft had set off, but Gareth's initial strategy to Brandon's slightly vague instructions seemed to have failed. Initially, he had intended to outrun the craft with the Xygen's top speed and handling. Yet, after a few seconds, the dark grey craft had not seemed to, it had quite obviously closed the gap Gareth started off with. Continuing on, the craft, piloted by Natalia Kireyeva shifted from directly behind the white craft to the side of it, then creeping alongside it, it began to shift into the side of it. However, Gareth anticipated that happening, and had shifted at the same time as it, nullifying the offensive move.

Tigron weren't the only ones Gareth had to look out for. Several specific teams had unnaturally superior performance than their previous iterations at the end of the 2214 season. However, he pushed that to the back of his mind. His main focus was to pilot the best he could, and attain as high a finish position as he could.

The dark grey craft had caught up to the other matte dark grey craft, and subsequently fired a barrage of weaponry at it, causing damage to the craft along with slowing it down. Naturally, the young Italian girl fired off, in return, a barrage of expletives in her native language, just as a white and azure blur screamed past her. That caused even more expletives directed at the Russian.

"Quake."
"Shield Active."

The instant the quake was fired from somewhere in the upper middle of the pack, Natalia had activated her shield, letting the wave pass over her like it was nothing. In similar vein to a certain other team, the two pilots of Tigron were working together closely to ensure they had achieved a 1-2 victory. It didn't matter to them who got 1st and 2nd, just that the end result was a complete victory for Tigron. With the quake crippling everyone ahead of Valkyria, the red and grey craft was able to rise up the ranks very quickly, soon sitting in 5th, behind Lucia in 4th and Gareth in 2nd.

"10 through 15."

"Stratagem Twelve confirmed. Initiate."

They had also devised several strategic team-based maneuvers to slow down the opposition. Stratagem 12 was one of many that involved one craft behind the other with multiple opponents in-between them. The leader would maneuver directly behind the first of the opponents and plant a line of mines, or maintain a safe distance ahead and plant a bomb. The latter was more efficient, since the next part involved the trailing craft firing an offensive weapon, for greater effectiveness, a set of rockets.

After avoiding the craft that had been slowed down, the trailing craft had caught up to its duplicate, the team entering their 1-2 "Perfect" position by the end of the first lap. The eyes of a certain team leader overlooking the race narrowed, as they followed the two similar craft race past.

"...tch. If this keeps up, we may need to activate Emergency Plan 3198."

"3198? Never heard of it. Although... th-"

"It doesn't matter." Brandon cut him off. "It exists, that's all you need to know. And if push comes to shove, I will be forced to use it."

------------
<12:32:39_>
<wolstenholme point: med rev_>
<race: lap 28 of 64_>

01.	KIR311.0.67.297	#67	Natalia Kireyeva	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4
02.	VAL027.1.66.297	#66	"Valkyria"	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4	+0.013
03.	ARD889.0.19.194	#19	Gareth Ardos	Angelus	AX2.2_r9	+0.437
...
06.	SCA308.0. 7.329	# 7	Lucia Scarlatti	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536	+6.934
...
19.	TUR847.1.13.329	#13	Leon Turner	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536	+38.882

Due to the extreme output of the K-Bystrota, the lone Angelus craft was falling gradually further behind the two monsters. The corners only granted Gareth a small gain, not nearly enough to keep up with them. Fortunately, one of the weapon pads granted Gareth a sure-fire way of catching and possibly even passing them.

Firing the Turbo gave Gareth enough of a boost to line up side-by-side to the second placed Tigron craft. Unfortunately, they were still not willing to play fairly.

"Your purity has been denied."

CRUNCH.

Suddenly, the craft shifted violently to the side, smashing against the pure white craft. Although, the maneuver was quite very illegal, as the craft continued shifting, not stopping until it had pushed the craft against the wall, causing it to scrape against it for several hundred meters. What resulted was a huge chunk of shield energy being lost from Gareth's craft, along with it falling behind.

Looking back briefly, Valkyria spoke several words to his teammate.

"Battering ram success. Zero damage to my craft. The purity can suck..."

His words were cut off, by the light Angelus barely getting his craft into firing range of it, the pilot unleashing his attack. Although, while initially intended to slow it down, something far more advantageous and seemingly impossible happened...

"Cannon."
<contender eliminated_>

Both Brandon and Gareth had spoken the same thing, at exactly the same time.

"...WHAT!?"

It was a very weird sight, seeing what were proven to be almost unstoppable tank-like forces... well, stopped, just like that. It wasn't a fluke either, as the other craft was soon eliminated just as easily after that. Usually, it would have been cause for celebration. However, this time, the event just caused confusion in the team's leader.

"I don't understand... what was their intention!? The shields can only possibly be weaker than ours, but those ramming techniques... I don't understand!"

Of course, Angelus' shields were still weak, and a certain team had taken advantage of it, in a fair, yet violent manner.

"Quake."
<contender eliminated_>

At the very least, one good thing to come out of that was Brandon's confusion being eliminated... along with the single craft.

"...damn. Can we even get through one season without being eliminated in the first. F*cking. Race!?"

The referenced album title of Part 42.2 was Never Trust the Chinese by Mr. Meeble.

[FTA|s3_3.2: Part 43.2] He Must Use Force

---

Shomaru Pass, Hanno, Saitama, Japan

Day 10.

22:00:01

Driver 'Archangel' Team N/A Car Unknown Year Unknown, possibly 2200s Type Sports, 2-door Layout M4 Plate ·4 07, classification 390 Colour Black Engine Unknown modified engine Power 332PS Weight Unknown Custom Parts "Archangel" Body Kit, Unknown engine modification, Azure Blue Laser headlights, Unknown other systems.

vs.

岩崎和哉 (Iwasaki Kazuya) Redlines Mazda RX-14 (FJ3S) 2212 Sports Coupé, 2-door FR 93-25, classification 356 Vintage Red Modified 1.6L 2-Rotor Twin-turbo 16X-REW/A 340PS 1137kg Mazdaspeed Front Bumper, Mazdaspeed Spoiler, 2.0 Mazdaspeed turbo gauge, Mazdaspeed muffler, bucket racing seats. Engine detuned from 410PS for faster runs.

"GO!"

<radiation | calla soiled_>

The two cars shot off the start point, both drivers seemingly serious to attain victory. The truth of the matter was that only one was truly serious. Kazuya was going all out, showing no mercy to the supposed new challenger, who had no idea what that challenge meant to him. Honestly, casually issuing that challenge to him... it was an insult! Too bad for that 'Archangel' guy that unlike others, he was also not afraid of dishing out... more aggressive tactics. Instantly, he swung the wheel very early into the first corner, a medium right-hand bend. As he did, the helmeted man turned his head to see...

'Fascinating... I did not expect him to start so early.'

The black car had started to decelerate well before the corner, but when Archangel saw the red RX-14, he slammed on the brakes, narrowly avoiding him. Kazuya himself held the angle of attack, expertly disengaging the stabilisers* briefly, allowing the car to enter a slide, maintaining it through the corner. Archangel followed behind, letting his car slip just the tiniest amount, hugging the inside as tightly as he could.

The corner was cleared perfectly, Kazuya keeping the slide in check before stabilising the car at the end of the corner. The sound of the RX-14's rotary engine unleashing a rather pleasant noise as it revved up to near its redline. Archangel, on the other hand, allowed his car to slide out from the apex, accelerating as he exited the corner from the other side of the road. The engine of his own car was a little different, sounding higher pitched.

After the initial corner was a small straight, followed by a tighter hairpin. Both the RX-14 and Archangel's car cleared the corner at an incredible speed, the gap between the two cars still very close. Although, it wasn't that Archangel had any troubles keeping up, or for that matter passing him. The man had elected to follow Kazuya, to see how exactly he raced . How well his racing skill was, what techniques he employed, and how his racing style was. Archangel was merely being pulled along for the ride, his mindless, instinctive control of his car actually working his mind, yet not getting lost in thought. His analysing of Kazuya's car and racing style was also assisting with that.

"The RX-14 is a great choice. Light, proving for amazing handling around this twisty course. The 16X rotary engine is also perfect, a peaky motor providing ample amounts of power... however yours seems to be expertly tuned, or should I say, detuned... seeing as it's down on power from the stock output. 400 would be way too much for the job. But your driving skills... that's a different matter. You seem to be skilled enough, but you could do so much better. And those ramming techniques aren't doing you any favours. With that, I know exactly where to strike."

Along one of the course's straighter sections, Archangel made the first of many moves, slowly moving from behind the RX-14, in a way taunting him. That move, however, did not end nicely.

"Not happening!"

Kazuya hit the brakes, slowing down immensely to bring himself closer to the anonymous challenger. A violent and sharp turn towards the black car once it had come up side-by-side with Kazuya's car had forced Archangel to pull back. The straight had soon ended with a mild S-curve, followed by a sharp right hand bend leading into a longer, faster left bend. Kazuya could, at any point on that twisty section, just straighten out, dealing a lot of damage if the black sports car had attempted to pull a move like that again. Thus, Archangel kept behind him, following the red car until the set overtaking opportunity had presented itself.

The RX-14 took a line that Archangel assumed he would. At the end of the long corner, he cut through the sharper bends apex, naturally moving back to the left side of the road after the corner's end. Archangel took advantage of the physics that would be exerted on the car at that point, and took a wider approach to the corner, putting him towards the right side of the road. It was all done so that Kazuya could see the move being executed, a major strategical point that Archangel had made sure to execute, before falling back once more.

The following straight also ended in a slight S-curve, before a sharper corner led to a triple hairpin complex. Archangel decided that enough "attempts" had been made, and it was better to just continue following. While the RX-14 drifted cleanly enough and at a wide angle, Archangel's corner attacks were more refined, barely at an angle. While it seemed faster than the traditional wide-angle drift, it also served to help with straightening out, and in the case of the triple-hairpin, make turning into the next corner that much quicker.

"And now, I strike here... this chase is over."

Suddenly, right at the end of the triple hairpin, the black car disappeared from Kazuya's view. He was preoccupied with steering into the corner. Noting it had vanished, he looked around for it, before looking to the side for a moment, still hearing the very familiar engine note.

"Wait, where's... what!?"

------------

An audience had gathered all throughout the course to see the Redlines' drift session, however, they were instead treated to a full-on touge battle. Three people in particular, all spectating from the one corner where Archangel decided to launch his attack, were watching on, unaware that there was a race currently going on.

"[sigh]... why did I have to come all this way just to see some drifting show...? I can drift perfectly well on my own..." One of the girls said.

"Huh? I thought you came here just to take me out to see it?" The shorter girl asked.

"I never said anything of the sort. I was asked to watch this complete farce by Teriyaki-kun." Her mention of that name was very sarcastic in tone.

It was then that a third person, a man in a suit, minus the jacket and wearing some smart-looking glasses, spoke up, still looking out towards the hairpin.

"That's where you're wrong."

The girls looked over to him.

"What? What do you mean?"

"The session's been cancelled. You saw that black car that raced up here, right? Well..."

He glanced over at the two for the first time.

"There's a race on."

Right at that moment, Kazuya's recognisable RX-14 came into view, followed very closely by a completely unrecognisable black car. In that brief instant between the cars coming into view and the start of the corner, the black car began its attack. It had shot to the other lane of the road much faster than the previous attempts, and since it was right before a corner, it was well before Kazuya noticed, the man focusing on the corner itself. entering the corner at a slightly greater speed than the RX-14.

"No!"

Kazuya briefly straightened out prematurely, aiming to incapacitate the opponent car effectively. However, when the car's centre of gravity finally shifted, and the car decided to move over to the other lane, the black car had already cleared the RX-14's path, and Kazuya was forced to correct his mistake.

"Ghh... No, no, come on!"

It was close, but Kazuya barely managed to avoid wrapping his car around the guardrail. So close, in fact, that he had very audibly scraped against it. That was it, though. It was all over. Archangel had won, his black car not allowing the previously undefeated red car to even so much as catch up to it.

The first win out of many, This first race had brought Archangel out into the public, an unknown racer with no known experience just suddenly appearing and annihilating the fastest racer down the pass... of course people would be talking about him. And soon enough, they had found it...

The website had listed the results and even the record time for the pass. Naturally, Archangel won, and had listed a record time a few seconds ahead of Kazuya's own record. That wasn't all, though. It even listed the name and location of the following pass, along with the name and basic info of the individual Archangel was publicly challenging...

---

* Disengaging an AG car's stabilisers causes it to slide. Basically, it's the equivalent of applying the handbrake, but without any real deceleration force caused from the maneuver. In addition, the stabilisers also act like tyres in that if their max power is too weak, then it may cause the car to slide when given enough force.

The referenced song title of Part 43.2 was It Must Use Force by Benjamin Briggs.

[FTA|s3_4.0: Part 44.0] Top Speed Dreams

---

<22150202-22150226>

Thursday, February 2nd, to Sunday, February 26th, 2215

Angelus R&D HQ, Perth, Australia.

After two whole years in development, two certain groups' projects were in its last stages of completion. Coincidentally, both projects were very similar in terms of their scope and overall functionality.

The former group's project was a limited production hypercar, meant to be a successor to the group's 2205 efforts. Unlike the previous one, there weren't a confirmed set amount of units, instead being produced in small amounts over the year. The decision to conceive the car came from an incident in 2213 where the 2205 hypercar belonging to the leader of the group had been destroyed by a grav-tank. Not wanting to be left without a high-powered machine, he took to developing the new project.

Two years later, it was almost complete. Five prototype test units had been developed, all to the specifications of the final production model, and were in relative amounts of working order. The five prototype test units were all given designations, named after the main isotopes of the chemical element the car was named after. These designations were P¹⁸⁸Ir, P¹⁸⁹Ir, P¹⁹⁰Ir P¹⁹¹Ir.0 and P¹⁹²Ir. Two of the units were not included with certain major mechanics, having been deemed unnecessary due to the structure of the car being more important for the tests than their functionality. One of these units, P¹⁸⁸Ir, was purposed for crash-testing, the other, P¹⁹⁰Ir for structural integrity testing.

P¹⁸⁸Ir and P¹⁹⁰Ir went through their own tests at roughly the same time. It was with these tests that the more intricate details of the naming scheme came into light. Each individual test unit was named to reflect their lifespan. For instance, P¹⁸⁸Ir, the crash-test unit, was named after the main isotope with the shortest half-life. All the other units had also reflected this naming scheme, with P¹⁹²Ir expecting to last the longest.

P¹⁸⁹Ir was one of three test units that were wholly complete and functional, and was developed before the two remaining functional units. This unit served to perform the final mechanical stress and reliability testing, which involved pushing the car and all its technologies, including the shiny new quad-rotor engine, to its limit. In the end, it had only served to confirm the results gathered from the monumental amount of calculations and formulae produced well before the manufacturing process, proving the whole system to be extremely stable and reliable.

The success of P¹⁸⁹Ir's test led to the immediate manufacture of the final two test units, P¹⁹¹Ir.0 and P¹⁹²Ir. P¹⁹²Ir was a lower priority model than P¹⁹¹Ir.0, however. Half of it had to do with the reason why the latter model had a deviation in its designation. The other half had to do with the fact that P¹⁹²Ir was to be developed as the publicity model, to be finally shown off at the upcoming motor show.

P¹⁹¹Ir.0, however, was a more secret test model than the previous four. It was to test even more systems, however, said systems were for a one-off model, never to be directly seen by the public. The first of which was an addition to the quad-rotor powerplant, 4 electric motors providing additional power on top of the car's already plentiful output. Of course, they were developed in tandem with the engine, and had proven their worth.

The main technology to go through final testing, however, was one that was developed in secret. Initially applied to a pre-prototype shell, the new system was developed as part of a separate stream of the same project. Once it was in some form of success, it merged back into the main stream of the project's development, and into P¹⁹¹Ir.0. As according to schedule, it was finally tested once more for stability, reliability and specification matching. Naturally, after the strenuous research and development that went into the technology, it had reached the mark on all three of its testing parameters.

P¹⁹¹Ir.0, despite its function to test the secret systems, had also adhered to the naming scheme devised. Its namesake was the lesser of two naturally occurring and stable isotopes. And, once it had completed its task of testing those systems, had been promoted to the very first "production" model, #0. Said model, however, would not be accessed by the public, instead it was to be used as the personal transport of the founder of the company, who had those secret systems commissioned into a special version of the car for his use.

P¹⁹²Ir's manufacture was completed right at the end of the development cycle, two whole years after the project had begun. Effectively a complete unit save for a few unnecessary systems, the unit was ready to be publicly revealed at the upcoming motor show the company had attended every year since its inception, without fail, even when they were apparently focusing solely and intently on their major project in 2200.

Despite not being a test unit, one last designation was given to the project. Multiple full production units had shared the designation ¹⁹³Ir, so named after the most abundant naturally occurring stable isotope.

------------
Crinale International HQ, Russia.

The latter group's project was, while still a hypercar, both similar and different to the first's limited production aspect of the design brief. It could technically still be described as a "limited" production model, but it was not intended to be a model released to the public. In other words, it was a model limited to just one, being a commission from the group's owner.

That of course didn't mean that only one was built. Several components each had 1-2 duplicates, including the shell of the vehicle, which underwent similarly stringent durability and crash testing as the test prototypes did. The various other components also underwent specifications testing and stress testing. Of course, there were more tests that had to be performed, owing to the sheer experimental nature of the planned, and eventually, completely manufactured and functioning powerplant.

The engine for the commissioned project was one that fit what was soon becoming the theme of the team. Utilising the technologies from a much more advanced product, and at that point in time the only other one they actively maintained, they fitted the vehicle with two jet turbines. The technology involved made it that the engine itself used up very little fuel, but the main focus on the technology was the turbines' immense power output. The fuel efficiency was just an unintended, yet beneficial, side effect.

The next systems to be tested were the bladed fins attached to the far rear of the car, which acted as airbrakes as well as functioning as what was called a directional stability system. Or, in other words, they acted exactly like an F-Class craft's airbrakes. It seemed, however, that both groups had similar ideas in terms of handling performance in that both of their hypercar projects contained a mechanical airbrake system, combined with torque vectoring in their stabilisers.

However, one thing that the latter singular unit project had over the prior multi-unit one was that they had incorporated one more piece of technology into increasing the handling of their vehicle. All four stabilisers functioned to steer the car directly, not just the front two as was in the other project. Overall, the project was highly experimental in nature, more so than the other project, due to the details of its design brief, and that only a single complete unit was to be developed.

There was one thing to note about their project, though. Despite knowing of the events that kickstarted the production of their rival's new project, they did not know of the product's existence itself, and had thus decided to base its target power output to that of the project's predecessor, explaining the coincidental similarities in both projects' performance. It was unintentional, but the two groups had actually made a product that was a true rival to the other's.

Arc: NJRS - #003
Title: Engineering Prodigy Linda Greyson

Jennter Enterprises HQ, Düsseldorf, Germany
Wednesday, 8th February 2215
11:23.43

After the devastating performance of the anti-gravity division in the opening race of the 2215 season, the headquarters of Jennter Enterprises have been busier than ever.
A lot happened the past years, but with some normalcy returing after 2212 and the success in recent years, the fall was hard again.
The #1 craft, as well as the remains of the #2, have been returned for thorough inspection. Linda was leading the taskforce created to find a much more urgent problem than the actual speed.
"The frame of the crafts showed exessive wear through the race. It poses an issue since shielding technology can't protect us from internal damage, furthermore it is a breach of the rules. However-" the young woman opened the meeting.
An employee rushed into the room, interrupting Linda and giving the vocal order: "TV-Sys: AGtoday, sound on."
TV screens along the wall switched from Lindas prepared presentation to said channel: 'F12000 contender Jennter Enterprises has been disqualified from the Wolstenholme round, due to breach of-"
"Article 6 Section 1a and b" Linda completed the announcement "TV-Sys: back to my presentation".
Said employee nodded and left in a hurry.

She shock her head "We didn't even finish to begin with. But rules are rules, I suppose."
"It is weird" came from someone taking part in the meeting "We didn't change much on the hull design compared to last year, neither did the rules..."
"Exactly" agreed Linda "Even more, our cornering speeds are much slower compared to last year. It makes no sense that the physical strain would be heavier now."
The young woman opened a CAD program and loaded the JAG-F12.212/5, together with data collected from the #1 craft of Patrick.
"This is a record of changes to the grid structure of the Number One craft during the last race. You can see an accumulation of Burgers-Vectors with passed time." she explained.
Linda continued to open the file for Auroras craft "And here the same for Number Two."

"Looks like we went too far with ionising the chassis" admitted Herman Graf, long-time head of the Chassis Ressort of Jennter Enterprises.
"Indeed." spoke Linda through her teeth "Perhaps you should reconsider your career choices."
Graf, a middle-aged and seasoned engineer usually never lost his cool, but this time he had to fight "Excuse me?"
For half a second a vicious smile ran over Lindas face "It is obvious that you've reached your limit half a year ago, but were too stubborn to accept it."
"Hold on, we made tons of calculations and simulations before testing this iteration!" defended Kevin Lerod, Herman Grafs right hand for several years.
"I recall that I approached you during that time, presenting you my corrected calculations." was Lindas snarky response.
Graf hissed back "Of course, you used the wrong method. Which is something a fresh graduate may can allow to happen."
"Here is the basic formulae" she displayed her basic method on the screens "It is a new method, considering the knowledge we nowadays have in structural development of metals. You however, relied on simplified methods used hundreds of years ago."
"Oh stop with your science fiction." Graf laughed her development off, but Linda just started a FEM simulation based on her new model.
The simulations calculated the 2214 chassis, while it took twice the iterations, the values were much closer to the real recordings than the original calculations.

"I am sorry Mister Graf, but you willingly put our pilot at risk, due to your arrogance. But that is something an assy old engineer may allow to happen." Linda concluded.
"That is..." he winced at this words.
She continued "We need a zero-error job. We need to rely on the best will of every employee. And just now you showed your incompetence in that regard. Farewell, Mister Graf."

Everyone in the room either starred at him, or tried to avoid Lindas glare.
At a loss of words, he slowly stood up, glarred at Linda and left.


14:43.39
A successfull meeting concluded that in short time two new frames based on the 2214 craft will be manufactured. Linda was happy with the day, until Nico Bovier caught her on the way back to her office.
"Linda Greyson, what are you doing?!" he yelled, while steadily approaching her.
"Just now we decided to use the old frame, something wrong with that?" she played oblivious.
"What are you thinking, firing important employees for what exactly?" Nico was noteably angery at her.
"He messed up due to his own ego. The spot falls to Mister Lerod for now, but I think he isn't suited either." she calmly explained.
"You set high standards, Greyson. Don't let them bite you back." the Bovier said.
Linda smiled "I don't intend to make mistakes. But scold me all you want if I am wrong."

She turned around and continued to calmly return to her office. Linda, the engineering prodigy whispered "In all my life, I never made a mistake."
"She may be talented" uttered Nico, a man experienced with the psychology of people "But the fall will be hard."

The referenced album title of Part 44 was Quarter Mile Dreams by Moog.

[FTA|s3_5.0: Part 45.0] Death Angel

---

Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

"The most vile of creatures... they are born, and will die as nothing but the source of all that is wrong with this world. Physically indistinguishable from humans, they are, however, an imitation, based upon an anthropoid template. These vile creatures know not what it means to be human, and thus do not live — they merely function, fuelled by greed, spite, idiocy... in fact, it can be accurately determined that their functions, their products, their purpose, all follow one, multiple, or all of the seven vices..."

------------

(Footage captured by a nearby security camera, datestamp 2215-0█-██)

[21:21:21] Unidentified Male enters carpark, walking. Upon noticing a red vehicle which had been situated there prior, he increases his pace, reaching the vehicle and kneeling beside it.

[21:22:17] Unidentified Female, confirmed to be owner of the red vehicle, enters shot of camera, walking up to the unidentified male. Male presumably hears female's footsteps, and stands up, turning around and brandishes what seems to be a bladed weapon. Female retreats slightly.

[21:22:44] The mouth of the unidentified male moves, before he pockets his weapon. A short period of time later, he continues to move his mouth occasionally, indicating that a conversation takes place. Either due to the correlation of the distance from the camera to the volume of their speech, or the camera's model not allowing for any audio has not yet been determined, however no part of the conversation is audible in the footage.

[21:23:34] Some time into the conversation, the male pulls out another weapon, looking like a white pistol. After several seconds, the discrepancy in time suspected to be from the female talking, the male looks down at it, then extends his arm, passing it over to her.

[21:23:58] Another suspected piece of dialogue from the female takes place, before she turns on the spot.

[21:24:06] Signal loss. The final few frames captured seem to make out the female aiming and firing the pistol at the camera, which corroborates with the camera losing its signal, and the fact that security found the destroyed remains of the camera soon after, the male and female assumed to have escaped the scene.

------------
Day 12.

21:29:44

About five minutes after the camera's destruction, a different, more traditional AG car pulled up into the carpark, its driver exiting once it had parked. Neither the red vehicle nor its driver was anywhere to be found, yet the man the camera captured was still there. The only other person in the otherwise abandoned square of tarmac, the new arrival walked up to him.

"Rei... Kurokawa?" He asked, trying to confirm the man's identity.

Rei Kurokawa simply nodded, and did the same for the other.

"Yes." Was the response, albeit spoken awkwardly. The man was not natively Japanese.

He was one of the seven survivors of the group Rei was investigating. Judging by the appearance of the man in relation to the seven's physical descriptions, he had accurately identified the one standing before him as 'Scott'. Of course, he had a proper name, but he did not want to reveal his hand, and so chose to identify him as the five-letter codename all seven known survivors had assigned themselves.

'Scott', like all of the survivors, was between the ages of 70 and 85, having been between 25 and 40 by the time of the group's official and large-scale collapse. Despite that, he was still a rather fit man, well shaven, and wearing smart casual clothes. However, he did not look his age at all, an interesting fact Rei noted.

The move was made, Rei had began to launch his attack against them, and it had started with a question, accentuated by the drawing of the pistol last seen in the unknown woman's hands.

"Scott, you will tell me. Who. Is. Erebus?"

He spoke fluent English. Of course he could, his former self, the one he abandoned, was born and raised in an English-speaking country, so why couldn't he?

"W-What!? I... I thought..." Scott was caught out by the sudden and fluent language change.

"You thought exactly what I wanted you to think. Now look, I don't think you really have a choice here. Answer my question. Who is Erebus!?"

The gun being held threateningly against him was all that was needed for the man to begin speaking.

"O-Okay! Okay! But I don't know much, I swear! All I know is that it's some greater-than-top-secret project that was being undertaken in the last years before the fall."

Rei simply shook his head.

"I know that's not all. I know what your occupation was there. I require all the information you carry."

"...fine. I was a technical advisor to the project, but I wasn't privy to the specifics! Just general stuff that could be applied to just about anything."

"Anything? Really?

"Yes! I... I swear that's all I know, that's the truth..."

"Fine." Rei spoke, lowering his gun. "That will be enough, then."

Just as he said that, though, with a speed unbecoming of the man, Rei lifted his arm once more, and pulled the trigger.

------------

The body on the hard tarmac of the carpark, Rei Kurokawa, with an entirely unemotional look on his face, pocketed his weapon. Walking up to the body, he felt through the man's pockets, pulling out what he was looking for: his car's key fob. Lifting the body over his shoulder, he pressed a button on the fob, unlocking and opening the trunk.

"...perfect."

The trunk was almost empty, and was large enough to contain the man's body without any issues. With that information noted, he dropped the body into the trunk, and closed it.

"...one down. Six remain."

After sending a text, Rei departed, leaving the first to be claimed in the carpark.

Arc: NJRS - #004
Title: Magnum Opus

Jennter Enterprises HQ, Düsseldorf, Germany
Friday, 10th February 2215
17:53.08

Linda was hammering a report into her keyboard, in the whole company only Aurora could match her typing speed. The responsive noise of the keys were not audible over the loud playback of Lully filling her office.

'The on-track tests of project J-LSVS-212/5-2* have been completed today and fully successful. Pilots reported a massive improvement in turning ability and responsiveness. Furthermore cruise stability has been improved by readjusting the craft control system to the new thrust vectoring.
However, the overal sluggishness of the current J-AGS12000 Levistrat* system makes me considering to redevelop the experimental J-AG-PSMSS* project. It is quite...bulky and did not practically work so far. But I '

She stopped writing her report and grabbed the VR headset and control gloves located in the shelf behind her. "VR-SYS: Launch ComKonWerk* loading 'JAG-F12-212-5b_verbund' and 'J-AG-PSMSS_v0-2'" Linda spoke and dived into the world of the CAD program.

Several hours later and only after having filled any free square inch of her office walls with caluculations, she stepped out of her office and marched straight towards the office of Nico Bovier.
The FACE* simulation was running on her laptop, taking up seventy percent of Jennters computing network capacity.

As both returned, Lindas noisiness attracted several interested coworkers who followed both. As Nico and Linda entered her office, they stood at the doorframe, following carefully her explaination and trying to take a gasp on the formulae filling her walls.

"And as this simulation shows, applying the anti-gravity field externally and using the adapted control mechanism alone results already in an increase of turnability by, to say it generally, 45%. And fully building the next craft around this approach, should at least double such a value." she summarised. It was unusual for Linda to speak about her own constructions in such a simple manner.
She struggled to keep standing and pretended to only lay against her chair, but it wasn't noticed, as the results of the FACE calculation were displayed, along the physical elements she changed on the craft.

Nico could not hide that he was impressed. But at the same time he had his doubts "Are you sure this is legal?"
"I am not sure." Linda answered unusually polite "But there is no exact rule against this. And it is no aerodynamic component."
Nico nodded with a slight smile "This is really impressive regardless. I am looking forward to your first field test."
Linda nodded back in response. Saying anything wasn't longer possible at this point.
Even less usual for herself after finishing a creation, she shut the door while others were looking in awe. She laid back into her chair, as everything went black.

______
J-LSVS-212/5-2: Jennter Laser Schub Vektor Steuerung 2212/2215 Version 2 (Laser Thrust Vectoring Control)
J-AG-SMSS: Jennter Antigravitations Planetar Sensomodromisches Steuersystem (Anti-Gravity Planetar Senso Modromic Control System)
ComKonWerk: Computer Konstruktion Werk (Computer - Construction/Design - Works) - Jennters inhouse CAD program
FACE: Field Antigravity Computational Encryption - Tool to simulate and adjust the behaviour of gravity field affectors and the objects around them

The referenced song title of Part 45 was Death Angel by Endur.

[FTA|s3_6.0: Part 46.0] Mass Target Manipulation

---

<22150219>

Sunday, February 19th, 2215

Nokav Vertigo, Rocky Mountains, USA.

10:49:09

The second race of the 2215 season brought the teams to the Rocky Mountains once more, this time tackling the deceptively difficult long course of Nokav Vertigo. A single glance at the layout would probably fool the viewer into thinking that it was a mostly straightforward circuit, but in reality, the course was a subtle devil, containing its fair share of subtle irregularities that threw a pilot's pace and initial strategy off, unless the strategy was masterfully worked around the course's irregular, subtly dangerous state.

The course twisted its way around Pikes Peak, a mountain that was also home to another race, a point to point race run solely by wheeled vehicles. Like the shorter two courses, the start grid for the long course was situated on the most northern straight of the course, situated very near the peak of the mountain. Unlike the other two, the grid was not in the same place, the layout forgoing the "main" straight. Thus, the teams and the race officials, including the press, were all at the secondary grid, further north and higher up than where they had been when the race there went through the medium and short courses.

Upon initial construction beginning of the various courses for the F-class tournaments, severe amounts of backlash was garnered over one significant portion of the long circuit, a minor section being shared by the medium course. The section was to tunnel into the mountain itself, however nature activists, among a few scientific organisations, spoke out against the tunnel section, citing that since the mountain was a historical landmark, it was not theirs to tunnel into for a racecourse. Soon, government officials stepped in, and the Nokav Vertigo project was forced to terminate, should the section not be redesigned to remain on the outside.

Having come that far, the project officials decided to take the latter option, and redesign the course. Interestingly, the redesigned section was rather maliciously designed, seeming to be simple enough at a glance and on paper, yet when actually raced on, the sadistic nature of the course designers venting their frustrations on those who shut down the original tunnel plan showed.

For certain teams, however, the course was the least of their problems. For others, it was stopping a larger threat that presented itself very recently. Little did two of the teams know, they were unknowingly teaming up, despite not so much as acknowledging each other. The prior race had caused the second of these two teams to devise a strategy that the first would otherwise not do.

"First and foremost, eliminate Tigron. Do not allow them to win." The strategic advisor spoke to their lead pilot.

"Hmm," The pilot replied, albeit quietly. "The way I see it, that might just be playing into their hands. You know how they admire violence above anything else. However... I still don't care. from all I've heard of this team, they must be stopped."

That pilot did have a name, but for most of the public, she was merely known as 'Lady White', her pseudonym given for her attire, which was almost entirely white, save for black boots and, occasionally, a violet scarf. Due to the rather cold temperatures of the mountain, causing most of the area outdoors to be coated in white snow, the scarf was one of the items she was wearing at that moment. Her race suit matched that, being a unique variant of the existing primarily purple Qirex racesuit, hers primarily being white with very minor pink and purple details.

"Precisely. The weapons exist for a reason. Another level of strategy. Tigron is a disease that must be cured as soon as possible."

The white-clad pilot simply nodded in response.

Of course, the other team took a different approach.

"Gareth, you've got pole." Brandon noted. "Take advantage of that, get away from Tigron and not let up. They do have the power from that hive unit, but this time, the course is on our side. It twists and turns, and then there's the infamous Section 3. If done right, we can shake them off."

"I understand." Gareth responded to Brandon's strategy.

Brandon smiled happily.

"Good! Now, you'd better hurry up, the race will start soon."

A simple nod later, Gareth started to head over to the waiting craft, and soon, was on the start grid, ready to begin the race.

3, 2, 1... GO!

<11:00:00_>
<nokav vertigo: long fwd_>
<race: lap 01 of 59_>

01.	ARD889.0.19.194	#19	Gareth Ardos	Angelus	AX2.2_r9
02.	AUR164.0.16.156	#16	Aurora	Jennter	JAG-F12.212/5
...
04.	ROU931.1.26.156	#26	Patrick Rouser	Jennter	JAG-F12.212/5
05.	WHI353.0.12.894	#12	"Lady White"	Qirex	LS12 v2.8
...
12.	SCA308.0. 7.329	# 7	Lucia Scarlatti	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536
13.	KIR311.0.67.297	#67	Natalia Kireyeva	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4
14.	VAL027.1.66.297	#66	"Valkyria"	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4
15.	TUR847.1.13.329	#13	Leon Turner	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536
...

<generator | dimension_>

As usual, the craft exploded off the line, Gareth's Xygen V having been tweaked to his specifications. These modified settings allowed Gareth to almost completely blow the main competition away. Of course, those with higher thrust power quickly caught up to him. However, the first corner was right after the start grid. That corner was rather sharp, and led into a series of descending hairpins. While they didn't unleash it during the Wolstenholme Point race, here Angelus were able to fully utilise the power of their new airbrake system.

In an instant, the craft disappeared from the views of the pursuing teams without any of them knowing what had even happened or how it was even possible. Gareth had shown them the power of Angelus' research and development by unleashing their new system that was vastly more powerful than the preceding system.

However, they were rather intricately being played. One certain team had noticed that Tigron were rather hell-bent on eliminating Angelus, and was taking that to their advantage, having the aggressive team pursue the calmer one, and not pay any attention to the real threat.

The hairpin section ran downwards, from the peak where the straight started from. In fact, it could be said that the entire long course was either moving down or coming up, with the exception of the main straight. The sharpest hairpin of the beginning section, which was executed almost perfectly by the modified craft, led into another straight, which was, while still at a decline, not as steep as the hairpin section. It was long enough that it was a possibility that Tigron and Crinale would catch up to them. Or, give them a clean shot.

"Rockets."

Despite entering the slight curve onto the small portion of the long course that was shared by the other two courses, the agile craft just barely got hit, even after sideshifting, albeit a little late. The northernmost section of both the short and medium courses was, by this point, very well known by all the pilots. A chicane series of high-speed, very easy corners that transitioned into two increasingly sharper corners, the first a right-angled bend, the other a slight hairpin.

Regarding the long course, the third section was not the only one re-designed. One small addition to the second section was made, not shared by any other course. The entry into it, however, was quite awkward, owing due to the rushed nature of the addition itself. The design was to continue past the original split point of the right angled corner, towards the hairpin, then split off from the hairpin onto the new section. However, the split to the new section seemed like it was to be entered from the complete opposite end, thus creating an even sharper right angle corner when approached from the correct side.

None of this was an issue for Angelus, but it was testing their airbrakes to its limit. However, due to the sadistic nature of the designers, the section did not let up for a second, throwing another sharp left-hand bend after a small right curve. After a short uphill straight, the crux of the section bared its fangs. A hairpin was situated in the section, but was aiming towards the incline of the mountain. Taking the incline to their advantage, they made the hairpin follow the incline of the mountain, and, with a slight twist of the track itself, accurately captured the extreme awkwardness of the hairpin in the FX300 course Sebenco Peak.

Of course, without sufficient practice, those who attempted the corner would, in most cases, not cleanly maneuver through it. As usual, the escaping team had practiced enough such that nailing the corner was a simple task. While most of the others did also make it through, there were several that did not, either scraping the wall at best or, at worst, slamming into it.

The section immediately following it was a much easier section curving along with the natural lines of the mountain. A slightly sharper right hander followed, before the track met up with the medium course's section once more. However, it was only a minor portion of it, since immediately following a series of corners of varying sharpness, the much dreaded Section 3 began, deviating from the medium course once more.

"Quake."

Tigron knew that the section was subtly difficult, and so fired the quake at just the right time in order to, at the very least, disrupt the leading team just as they had entered the section, its change in difficulty occurring rather suddenly. The momentum of the attack sent the white craft careening into right wall of what seemed to be a high-speed right hand corner. However, with the angle it had subtly skewed at, along with the way it had, also subtly, narrowed out, meant that the corner it had lead into, was a far slower affair than how it seemed. But despite their mistake causing them to hit the wall, it would take much more for the lone pilot to catch up.

It was only the first lap, and yet the major parties were in an intense battle as if it was the middle of the race, or even the final laps. The twisting section, naturally, demanded much more out of Gareth than any other course section had, however his extensive practice had been put to good use, getting through the twistier first part of the section, while not clean, still a faster approach than Tigron, who chose a cleaner, yet slower line.

A faster corner lead into two increasingly tighter, more difficult corners, before the final portion of the section. It was a good a point as any for one pilot to activate a saved turbo, over a waiting weapons pad, and...

"Oh, damn it."

Fail to obtain a weapon necessary of at least slowing down the juggernaut of a team.

With the three craft around the corner that lead in to the final corner of Section 3, Gareth strategically let off on the offense, while his craft was more than up to the task, he didn't want to overexert himself. It was, after all, only the first lap out of 59.

------------

That section, to someone in a far heavier craft, was a nightmare, especially the final "curves" out of there, just what the hell was that about!? Still, it did provide an opportunity for a barrel roll, although it was one that every team ahead of the white-clad pilot took. The rather well-balanced craft was slowly being left behind by the much faster opponents. Fortunately, there was a way to slow one of them, possibly both of the greater threats, and scare the pants off the other opponent. Almost an instant after receiving the weapon, the fire button was tapped.

"Missile."

Keeping to one side of the track, Lady White fired the missile blind, before it could lock on to the white and azure craft directly ahead of her. As it passed him at incredible speed, she couldn't help by feel somewhat bad for him. But her main target was the ones unsuspecting of the maneuver that was just pulled. Due to the gentle curve of the section, the missile would eventually hit the opposite wall or one of the craft that had to take the curve.

"...wait!"

Natalia only had time to exclaim that one word, before the missile struck true, causing direct damage and shunting her craft into the wall. This also had an unintended positive effect in the slowing down of their second pilot as well. Due to how the Tigron team had devised their strategies, after Gareth had been hit with the quake, the two craft ran with one craft tailing the other. However, Valkyria, the second pilot, had started to get a little too close to Natalia, and as such, had no time to avoid the leading craft as it rapidly slowed down into him.

Of course, the race was far from over, there was still 58 laps remaining, and the two Tigron craft were still very much active.

"Bomb."
BOOM.
"Contender Elimin-- Rockets. Contender Eliminated."

Seemingly from nowhere, a white and orange craft appeared into view, fired the rockets at the remaining Tigron craft disrupted by the bomb's radius of effect, and continued as if they had known what was even going on, at top speed.

Hearing the two elimination messages one after the other, the lead Angelus pilot couldn't help but shake his head as he crossed the line for the second lap.

"You know, Brandon," He begun to speak his mind, "This could just be what they want. Eliminated at the first lap, antagonising most of us, their weak shielding... they seem to be the perfect target. Too perfect, if you ask me."

"It's something to consider." Brandon noted. "But only after the race. It's only the second lap, focus on winning."

"Yeah, you're ri-"

"Cannon."

Wordlessly, the pseudonymic pilot fired at the craft. There were no harsh feelings as was the case with Tigron, but it was still a race, and Lady White was still as competitive as anyone else. Passing the slowed down craft, she looked behind her briefly using her HUD to see the Jennter craft gradually gaining on her. Rather simply, she let it pass her, not really having a choice in the matter with the lack of some form of defence that wasn't her craft itself.

Of course, that didn't mean she was throwing in the towel. It did take a while for the purple Qirex to run over a charged weapon pad, but what she received was more than enough to re-take the lead.

"Turbo."
"Rockets."

However, they were immediately stopped, along with Jennter, by the lone Angelus craft, who had finally caught up to them. That marked the beginning of a three, and eventually four-way battle between Lady White, Gareth, and the two Jennter pilots. Despite their differences in skill at navigating through Section 3 as fast and cleanly as possible, they did seem to be evenly matched in the overall standings. Eventually, the race had ended quite fairly, with Lady White taking first, Aurora and Patrick Rouser finishing second and third respectively, and Gareth, due to a last-minute weapon hit, closed off the four-way race just behind the top 3.

Ha, got 'em

The referenced album title of Part 46 was Mass Manipulation by REZZ.

[FTA|s3_7.0: Part 47.0] Chimera Sleeps

---

Nasushiobara, Tochigi, Japan.

"The chimera. A fire-breathing creature from mythology, consisting of multiple body parts of different animals in the one creature. Some dangerous, some not. However, the creature is said to be quite dangerous, indeed. The same could be said for racing teams. Different people, driving different cars, all with different levels of talent and skill.

The real danger with a racing team, the fire breath of the chimera, comes not with the average level of the team's opponents, it is, in essence, two things, but it all points to one major factor: The fastest racer of that team is, naturally, the strongest part of the team. Of course, how fast they are is directly correlated to how dangerous they are to battle. However, the second factor is less direct..."

------------
Day 15.

14:39:07

A particularly sunny day was the rather clichéd backdrop for a meeting by five former high-school friends; two females, and three males. They had all graduated from the same school, in the same year, and they were all bound together by one single common interest, before any else: drifting cars. They were all very much interested in the touge racing scene, and by the time of their graduation, all had cars of their own.

"So, are you ready for tonight?" One of the males asked.

He was Iori Yoshizawa. Tall and lanky, with short black hair, he usually wore a modified variant of his own school uniform. Despite wearing glasses, he was considered not the strategist, but the mechanic of the group, fixing and helping to modify the group of friends' cars. The car he drove was the most powerful, yet oldest out of their cars, a white 2190 Nissan Fairlady Z, which put out 263hp.

"Well, we'd usually just be doing a drift run like any other, but you realise this is something different, yeah?"

The woman who spoke was Naomi Matsushima, who also went by the nickname 'Solar'. Her blonde hair was long and flowing, tending to flow out from behind her. She wore a simple yellow jacket over a black, white and orange singlet. Below her waist, she wore a red and black plaid skirt, black tights and the same black Mary-Janes she wore as part of her school outfit. Her choice in cars was fairly simple. Fast, yet as tiny as possible. To that, the car she owned was a 2199 Toyota MR2 GS, in a dark grey, putting out 192hp. Being mid-engined, it was a somewhat dangerous car to drift, if she wasn't completely used to it and in total control.

"Ah, of course! Solar's right, we saw the announcement just last night!"

That man was Rei Haneda. An outlier in a certain aspect of the five's friendship, Rei was an approachable, care-free man. His hair was short like Iori's, but was dark brown rather than black. A man of simple tastes, he wore a white t-shirt with a design printed on it, along with black pants. He owned and drove a black 2198 Nissan 180SX, tuned to 249hp with the help of a turbo upgrade to his SR20 inline-four, and containing a Yokomaru Fortune bodykit. He was always pushing the boundaries of his car, sometimes even paying for it.

"W-wait! What announcement?"

The other girl was Tsumugi Kotonami. A rather sleepy looking girl when outside of her car, she had long orange hair. Her usual attire was of a grey shirt with a grey-black gradient skirt, a white tie around the shirt, and a pair of popular sneakers, in red. Her car was rather unique, her 2207 Honda Civic Si being the only front-drive car of the group. Despite that, she still somehow was able to make her car drift, albeit not to the angles the other group members could get to. However, the car was a beast, having it's engine swapped out with an F20C7 from an S2000. Thus, it put out a rather high 254hp.

"Surely you know? You, of all people?" Rei queried.

"No, I really don't! What announcement?"

Before Rei spoke, another person cut in. He was the quiet one of the group, but didn't stay quiet completely, or all day. He did give comments, but only where he felt it was truly necessary.

"...I have an idea. Let's not tell her yet. Wait until tonight."

That man was Haruto Kawakami. Bearing longer, black hair, he came from a more well-off family, so he could wear more stylish, upmarket clothing and was able to purchase the newest, yet not quite fastest car of the quintet: a 2212 Angelus Neko ST. Painted in a bright azure colour, the car was kept clean, completely stock. Of course, that did not mean that its 150hp inline-4 could not make the car's tiny 1058kg frame slide around a corner.

Rei just burst out laughing.

"You don't speak in what seemed like hours, and that's what comes out!? That's amazing!"

And then, Haruto responded with a silent nod, not seeing the point to speak any more.

Their plans were made, and so they had all met up that night, on Happogahara, at what was effectively the start line of their course. All five friends had arrived, all in their own cars.

"Hey, first off, let's all go for a run!" Solar suggested.

Getting back in her MR2, she began to drive at breakneck speed down the pass, without even waiting for the others. Inside her car, before the first corner, she laughed loudly, leaving everyone else in her dust. Scrambling to their cars, all 4 remaining friends began to race down the pass, intending to catch up to the dark grey MR2.

The first to start moving after Solar was Haruto, he started moving toward his car first while everyone stood dumbfounded. The sound of his 1.6L inline-4 snapping everyone else out of their trance, to quickly enter their cars and follow suit. Despite his seemingly hard start, he was mechanically sympathetic, and had only launched the car at a large fraction of his Neko's upper limits, only going up to 100% when he knew he could.

As he rounded the corner as well, everyone else finally started. Immediately following him, in order, was Iori, Tsugumi and Rei. All of them were following closely behind, but not too close so that it was unsafe.

All 5 friends were drifting along the course, none of them being serious about getting the best drift, or the fastest times. They were all drifting for fun, not for competition. While it was fast, they weren't pushing themselves. In fact, after a certain point, Solar was going slower than she usually went, allowing her friends to catch up to her. Once she saw the pop-up headlights of Haruto's Neko, she stepped on the accelerator, letting the car gain a burst of speed and power, allowing the car to powerslide around the corner.

"Heh, finally caught up?"

However, the Neko was not the only one that was visible from the girl's MR2. The most powerful, but equally revered to everyone else's cars, Iori's maroon Fairlady loomed just behind the much newer Neko.

"Hmm, you too. Heh, took you lot long enough!"

Pressing the accelerator further down, Solar pushed her car back up to her usual speed, having slowed down to allow her friends to catch up to her. She did it instinctively, right in the middle of the turn, which caused her car to slip more, further widening her drift angle. The result was a visible wobble, as she tried to correct herself, fully planting her foot down as she exited the corner.

The rest of the run was like any other, with one small difference. The friends that knew of one small fact had begun to notice one rather subtle, almost unnoticeable quirk with one of their friend's car, or more, how they drove. They tried to hide the fact, but they weren't very good at hiding it, so their cornering was very smooth, even if they were just as fast as everyone else.

For the final section of the course, Haruto decided to have some more fun, and attempt to pass Naomi.

'Solar. No offense, but you're ahead of me. I'm coming for you.' He thought.

<ghost voices | virtual self_>

Before she knew it, Haruto shifted down and mashed the accelerator. The roar of his small 1.6L engine could be heard by the girl, who looked behind her in surprise.

"...h-huh!?"

Hastily shifting down herself, Solar tried to speed up herself. She didn't have any reason to though, she could have let him pass, but something compelled her to maintain her position. The gear activated, she stomped on the accelerator, her own car responding with a similar loud scream, lurching forward from its sudden peak power output.

There was not much of the course left, only about 10 corners remaining. The three that were trailing the two seemed understandably surprised at the turnout of the situation and, one after the other, tried their best to keep up to them, and each other.

"Wh-? Hey! Hold on!"

Iori's powerful Fairlady propelled him faster, while narrowing his margin for error. Yet, he was still able to, very barely, keep up. The white coupe that was quite coveted by the group gradually pulled away from the line of sight of Tsugumi. Her response was to start speeding up, stopping the distance between them to stop growing.

"I'm not gonna be left behind..."

Her S2000 powered Civic responded instantly, the small car thrusting ahead at a rather quick speed that could only possibly be matched by it's vastly more powerful Type R sibling. Such a beast, however, was far from the recently graduated student's reaches monetary-wise. Not that she needed the 310hp monster anyway, her own 254hp rocket did everything she had asked of it.

"No! No, no, no, no, no!"

Rei, meanwhile, had reached his limit. He could not accelerate any faster, despite his 180SX being more than up to the task. He could only watch in dismay as the two white cars directly ahead of him pulled away, leaving him behind. The small battle had continued in his absence, Iori and Tsugumi only observing the race unfold.

Of course, on paper, there was no way a 152hp, 1053kg Angelus Neko ST could ever keep up with a more powerful and lighter Toyota MR2 GS. However, human skill was something to be taken into consideration, and on that front, Haruto had Naomi beat. In that sense, they were almost on equal footing.

The final corner was approaching quickly, separated by one penultimate straight. Both drivers used the entire rev range to go as fast as they possibly could, but the cornering was something different. Naomi took a wide, flashy drift approach to the corner. Seeing the opportunity, Haruto decided to opt for a more faster 'racing line' type drift. He slowed down a small amount, before turning in, the stabilisers slipping and pitting him into a controlled drift.

"Ghh! Come on... GO!!"

The car slid beautifully, while also moving closer to the inside guard rail. The corner wasn't perfect, and Haruto ended up grazing against it, sending sparks flying upon contact. But enough speed was preserved for him to slowly catch up to the leading MR2...

It wasn't enough. Naomi's lighter, more powerful car had gained more speed in the time it took him to catch her, and she had, albeit barely, maintained her lead. The sounds of the decelerating cars could be heard by the two observing drivers, who rounded the final corner and barrelled down the final straight shortly after Naomi and Haruto did, so they saw the final moments of the race. Stopping their cars next to Haruto's and Naomi's, they both exited, rushing up to them just as Naomi stepped out of her car.

"Hey! Solar! What was that all about?" Iori exclaimed. "I had to try so hard just to keep up with you!"

Calmly, Naomi explained herself.

"It was Haruto, suddenly he started speeding up to overtake me. I... don't really know what came over me, but I felt I just had to keep him from doing that."

Iori turned to the almost ever-silent man, walking over to them.

"Haruto? Ahh. Man, this better not be one of those times where you stay silent no matter what. You weren't... ah, never mind, just... explain yourself?"

Several silent seconds passed, as the man retained the trait he was known for, before, finally...

"...I tried to accomplish something. I had failed. Passing Solar, is not what I am talking about."

"Then what was it?"

"It is not important, we can get to it later. There is a different, yet vaguely related topic we had all decided on discussing after reaching the end. So here we are."

"You mean, we discuss while you stay silent?" Tsugumi giggled.

Haruto responded, quite unsurprisingly, in a silent manner.

"We can't discuss it yet," Iori noted. "Rei isn't here yet."

As if on cue, the sound of an SR20 inline-4 filled the air, and the headlights of the black, highly visually modified 180SX came into view, the car drifting around the final corner, to race up to where they had congregated, and slide to a halt alongside the four other cars.

"Oh, yeah." He sarcastically commented as he stepped out. "Don't wait for Rei, he can catch up to us."

"Well, you did, didn't you?" Naomi said with a giggle.

"I... [sigh], whatever. Anyway, the announcement I was talking about earlier, I think it's time we talked about it."

Of course, everyone perked up to pay more attention to their friend, who had decided to just start to bring it up out of the blue.

"The gist of it is, the group, Chimera, that team we just made up when we were teens that found each other through this one common interest, is being targeted."

"...targeted!?" Tsugumi piped up.

"Not in a threatening way... well, sort of. Basically, did you hear about what happened in Shomaru? The fastest racer there got completely beaten by some unknown racer who called himself 'Archangel'. He's coming for Happougahara now. For us. For the fastest racer down this pass."

"But... none of us are the fastest, right? We usually just mess about down the pass, we aren't serious racers!"

"Oh, no. There is one. One of us is very much... the fastest."

Haruto understood. The time had finally come. The truth had finally been revealed. Thus, he spoke.

"...We know of your talent, Tsugumi."

The girl was, understandably, quite surprised.

"...

"...eh!?"

The referenced song title of Part 47 was Cthulhu Sleeps by deadmau5.

[FTA|s3_8.0: Part 48.0] The New Model

---

<22150311>

Saturday, March 11th, 2215

International Geneva Motor Show, Geneva, Switzerland.

11:10:00

As the lights dimmed, the projector on the back of the display lit up. At that point, it begun playing something that was very much seen before: it was the teaser for the very first project Angelus had announced in 2213, in the very same location two years ago. It was a very simple teaser, since the project had only begun one month before the show did. Only containing the words "NS4 Project, coming soon." fading into existence, staying there enough to fill up one minute of total footage, before shutting off.

It wasn't over yet. Immediately after the teaser ended, the next one began. This one was debuted at the International Motor Show in Germany, later on in 2213. Flashing, swooshing, speeding blue lines entered and exited the screen before the words "Prototype G9.6" filled the screen.

The third one started shortly after, signifying that all of their "secret projects" were, in actuality, just one. This one was different in three aspects. The first was that it had, after the same blue lines as the previous teaser sped past, an image showing the design of the project... albeit mosaic censored. The second aspect was that it was translated from the teaser's original Japanese, having been displayed only at the Tokyo Motor Show in late 2213:

¹⁹¹計画
「申し訳ありませんが、検閲が必要です。 これはあまりにも猥褻です。」

The translated text showed it to say:

¹⁹¹Project
"We're sorry, we needed to censor this thing. It's too obscene."

The third and final aspect that the teaser was altered from the TMS original. The last portion of text erased itself, and the entire image decensored itself, showing a very dark, almost uniform black silhouette of the project. It looked to be a very sleek supercar.

Again, the teaser abruptly ended, where the fourth began to play. That one was shown in the North American International Motor Show in Detroit in early 2214. It was similar to the Tokyo Motor Show teaser, except for a couple things. First, it was in English, since it was being displayed in the USA. Second, the entire censorship joke was removed, and instead of showing the design of the project, it provided some small details of the Project. Finally, it was given a similar, but still new designation: Type ¹⁹³Z.

And then, the final teaser. This one, like the Tokyo Motor Show teaser, was altered. It showed just one piece of text: "Project Ir77". It was then the alterations happened. The word "Project" faded out of view, and "Ir77" moved to the centre. A recognisable grid filled with symbols faded into view, and began zooming in. As that happened, the "Ir" and "77" separated, changing their position. The zooming in grid focused to one cell in particular, as the letters and numbers stopped moving. Then, finally, everything disappeared, flickering out, except for the name of the chemical element the code had signified.

Iridium.

When that happened, the cloth covering the car was flung off it.

"I finally present to you: The new Grade 4 Angelus hypercar... Iridium!"

It was then that the mass amounts of flashing happened, from the equally large amount of cameras going off, taking photos of the new, even more sleek-looking product when compared to its predecessor. To avoid them stealing the limelight from them, the reveal was scheduled to not happen at the same time as Jennter's own announcements. It was there the car's details were finally made public.

"This is a rather new type of beast." Brandon started. "Of course, it had to be, with what it had to stand up against. This had to truly be a successor than the Razer.X.

"Well, let's start off with the transmission. Now, most car manufacturers offer one, maybe two ways to drive a car. Maybe, for instance, a full automatic mode combines with a flappy-paddle sequential gearbox. Our Delta-Gear electronic gearbox system has been fully utilised here, to offer 4 switchable styles to drive the Iridium. The first is completely automatic. So, this would be ideal for, say daily driving, for city driving, if one doesn't feel the need to shift.

"Both the second and third styles are different flavours of a sequential approach. The first flavour is a flappy-paddle shift setup. Pulling one paddle increments a gear, the other decrements one. The second flavour, along with the fourth shift style, utilises the stick shifter. The sequential method is simple enough, flick upwards to shift up, and flick down to downshift. But, flipping this dial here, switches the mode into the fourth and final style.

"You can actually use the shifter as a full H-pattern, select-whatever-you-want, manual gearbox. Say you're on the highway, cruising in 7th, and you want to overtake someone. In a safe, controlled manner, without speeding, of course. You can move the shifter directly down to 2nd, and perform the overtake.

"Now, space. The Iridium is ever so slightly smaller than the Razer.X, but we were able to better utilise its footprint. So, behind the doors, there are these panels here."

He pointed to one of them, then opened the door to pull a latch in the doorwell. The panel flung open, revealing a storage compartment.

"This is like the storage compartment in an almost 2 and a quarter century old car: The McLaren F1. There is another one on the other side, but unlike the F1, that's not all of them."

Deciding it was better to use his phone, he pulled it out, and opened all of the cars covers. As the front lifted up, he walked over to it.

"There is another compartment here, in the front..."

Then he walked over to the back of the car, where another cover just below the rear one stayed unclosed.

"And another, thinner compartment here. But, that begs the question: where's the engine? What is it, and how powerful is it? After all, the Razer.X had a 700hp V10, what could possibly match that, and not take up as much space? You may recall that Mazda had some help developing their new rotary engine for the RX-14 way back in 2208. Well... that was us. Under a... well, I don't want to say it was a front company, Mazda's engineers knew who they were dealing with precisely. Just that no-one from the public did. Anyway, that brings us here.

He lifted the secondary cover, finally revealing the shiny new powerplant.

"Both the Iridium and the R215 GT we showed off last year will contain a rotary engine; a four- and three-rotor respectively. The four-rotor in this will not be turbocharged, and for one very good reason: we were able to, disgustingly easily, extract 825hp from it! And this is coming from a powerplant that takes up less space, and weighs much less than the V10 it's replacing. So, we're able to add more creature comforts, as well as all of those storage spaces, we wanted to make full use of the footprint of the car's total space.

This is, in essence, a far better hypercar than the Razer.X. No, that part isn't even necessary; it's a much better car, than the Razer.X."

------------
Unknown date, 2215

Unknown location, Luxembourg

Unknown Time

In the depths of Luxembourg, one certain group were making the final preparations for what they referred to as the "Cobalt Project". The preparations consisted of a system, recently made ready to be installed into an anti-gravity craft.

The chassis was the first to be developed, followed by the gradual acquirement and installation of all the various components that made up the craft. The design was a major upgrade to the one that was currently attempting and failing to achieve it's predetermined role, which was where the upgrade was to fix.

For some reason, the internal components of the craft were all installed not as cleanly as any of the other competing teams'. Upon the partial disassembly of the craft to allow for the installation of the recently developed system, what was revealed was a gigantic mess of a countless number of, and countless meters of wires and cables, all connected up to oddly placed components and controllers of the critical components that were required to be less randomly placed. Of course, this meant that the final component was installed in a similarly messy fashion.

One thing to note about the craft's components was that, interestingly, the Anti-Gravity Racing Commission didn't even know the details of the technology used in the craft. This was a concern, but not a major one, since they had a history of not even being able to qualify in any of the F12000 races to date.

"Finally! We finally did it! The project is complete! 'The Future Is Now', indeed!"

The technical director, one Felix Konrad Porsche, grinned, glancing at the founder beside him.

Wearing a rather garish business suit, Jean-Eric Fallouis was the Luxembourgish founder of the team, a businessman that sold ultra-ionised lightweight materials before entering the anti-gravity racing scene.

"At long last... we might just be able to qualify for Monte Carlo. This will prove that the only way to win is through cold, hard cash. Nothing more, nothing less."

"The very best tech costs the most." Porsche affirmed. "The very best pilots are always the most expensive. I don't know where our funding is coming from, but I do know that it's not my place to know. Not like I care, of course, I have more than enough to play with, to perfect everything to do with the project."

"I provided you the seeds, but we shall soon see the fruits of your labour, Felix. I expect nothing short of complete victory."

"As if I'd be expecting any less."

"Good. No more warnings. Gravitesse shall be known to the entire world!"

------------
Gravitesse Cobalt Project <cobalt@gravitesse.ag.lu>
Sun 29/01/2215 9:09 AM
You <staff@agrc.org>
Attachment: "Cyriopagopus_lividus.exe"

---Decoded Message---

The time of which you seek is finally upon us. The F12000 Anti-Gravity Racing League will bow down to us as the true rulers of speed, of strength, and of technical prowess. Our identity shall be unveiled from the deepest, darkest shadows from whence we currently reside. There will be not a single chance for the Anti-Gravity Purity Alliance to act, as our ultimate victory shall be attained before long. The finality of our actions will ensure that absolutely no team shall ever question our integrity any longer.

This shall not be considered a warning, this is but a notation of purely certain future events.

The referenced album title of Part 48 was New Model by Perturbator.

[FTA|s3_9.0: Part 49.0] Drift Away

---

Nasushiobara, Tochigi, Japan.

"Defeating an opponent is, in theory, a simple affair. In practice, not so much. To achieve total victory over an opponent, you need to outwit, out-strategise, out-maneuver, and out-skill them. Being stronger, more powerful, helps rather marginally, to a certain extent. It takes skill to outperform your opponent, but much greater skill to mask that ability to your opponent themselves."

------------
Day 16.

21:32:14

"...We know of your talent, Tsugumi."

The girl was, understandably, quite surprised.

"...

"...eh!?"

Haruto opened his mouth, before looking a little uncomfortable. Closing it, he looked to the three others.

"You are the fastest one out of all of us." Iori picked up from the now silent Haruto. "We've seen you practice, late at night."

"B-But..."

"It's your white GC4, we know it was you."

That left her out of excuses. She had no choice but to come clean. And with a sigh, she did just that.

"...I-I... I didn't want you to find out... I can't tell you why."

Looking around to confirm with the others, Iori continued. "We... all think it's awesome though! So what if you're better than us? You're still our friend, we still love you!"

"I... you sure?"

Her response was met by nods from her 4 friends.

"O-Okay, then... So, you know the race is tomorrow, right?"

"Oh! Yeah, that's right. How about we start the preparations by giving you a statistically faster car?"

"What? How are you gonna get one now?"

"I meant... letting you drive my Z."

"Th-... what!?"

It was was well known amongst them that Iori's well managed Z39 was, statistically, the fastest car in the team. In the hands of the fastest person in the group, should mean that it would become a monster in her hands.

"Get a practice run in... using the Fairlady."

To emphasise his point, he held up his keys, which dangled from his finger. Tsugumi just stared at the keys in bewilderment.

"...wait... seriously?"

"Of course I am."

"I... don't know. I'm really used to my car, y'know? And it's such a massive difference, going from FF to FR."

"Hmm... I... see your point. Okay, we'll be watching!"

"I know you will be!"

------------
Day 17.

22:00:00

At 10pm exactly, a black car similar to the one seen at Shomaru Pass could be seen making its way up to the start point of Happougahara. At the last possible second, the handbrake was applied, and it very quickly slid to a stop.

Right in front of a Honda Civic Si GC4, painted in a non-factory colour, the Type R exclusive Championship White colour.

"So. Here it is."

The driver's door to the black car opposing it swung open, and the tall, helmeted form of Archangel stepped out, walking slowly towards the girl standing beside the car after shutting his car door.

"...you must be Kotonami Tsugumi." He finally spoke.

"Archangel, I guess?" The girl sleepily replied.

"That's right. Well, you know why we're, let's not waste any time."

She nodded, before looking back to her friends behind her.

"Good luck!" Naomi called out, giving her a thumbs up.

Tsugumi smiled amicably, and nodded in her direction.

"Thanks."

The two opponents turned and entered their respective cars. Archangel fired his up first, in order to move and reposition it at the start line. Once that was done, the race would start proper, with Iori standing between the two cars...

<smoke and fire | moog_>

"Counting down! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!"

Driver 'Archangel' Team N/A Car Unknown Year Unknown, possibly 2200s Type Sports, 2-door Layout M4 Plate ·4 07, classification 390 Colour Black Engine Unknown modified engine Power 250PS Weight Unknown Custom Parts "Archangel" Body Kit, Unknown engine modification, Azure Blue Laser headlights, Unknown other systems.

vs.

琴南鶫 (Kotonami Tsugumi) Chimera Honda Civic Si (GC4) 2207 Sports Compact, 2-door FF 62-75, classification 592 Championship White Modified 2.0L I4 NA F20C7 254PS 1029kg Custom Exhaust, Custom Mirrors, Custom Carbon Fibre Hood, Custom Front Bumper, Bucket Racing Seats, Engine swap from 1.5L L15F8 to 2.0L S2000 F20C7.

"Hyah!"

Tsugumi's pure white Civic shot from standstill, taking the initial lead. That came off as a surprise to her, for a quite obvious reason.

'Eh? His car looked way more powerful than that...' She thought.

It was a rather short straight, with the corners coming thick and fast shortly after. The first one was taken in Tsugumi's usual manner when she was practicing her top speed runs on her own. Turning into the corner, she deactivated the customised rear stabilisers very shortly after, sliding the front-wheel-drive car's rear out, a trick she found out a few months after buying the car. It was not as wide a drift as she would usually take when with her friends, but it was still far wider than the looming black sports car behind her...

Except it was no longer behind her.

Archangel was now right alongside her, his car still in the shallow drift Tsugumi saw him enter.

"Ngh!? I thought so! Was he holding back? ...he must have."

When she straightened out of the corner, and angled the car for the subsequent corner, she saw her pursuer back away from her, slowing down to keep behind her. Of course, being scared like that, she had gained the knowledge that he could pass her at any moment, lest she speed up. And that, logically, was what she had begun to do. Maintaining the same angle of drift as the first corner, she tried her best to increase her speed, pushing harder than she had ever done.

After reorienting himself behind her from the first corner, Archangel took a note of her entry speed, and his almost accidental overtaking. Observing closer, he started looking for a certain tell. Throughout the subsequent corners, one thing was revealed to him, but he decided to wait it out, in the possibility that it may become more observable further on in the race.

Tsugumi's wide drift angles would have been fine on its own, but there was no strategy, and only slightly more speed to back it up. The drift was just for show, not to block Archangel.

"Hmm..."

Directly following the consecutive chicane-esque corners, a gentle right hand bend presented itself. The scream of the F20 S2000 engine could be heard even by Archangel, as Tsugumi planted her right foot into the floor, shooting away from Archangel. Naturally, Archangel's response was to mirror her, and accelerate into the high speed bend as well.

While he took a standard line in, not the best by any means, he still found himself gaining ground on Tsugumi. That meant that he was very close to overtaking her, despite him taking it easy. To aid in that, he pulled a wide drift around the following right-angle left hand corner.

One more chicane-type corner preceded the first of the course's many hairpins. It was extremely early into the race, but...

"...No."

Archangel called it quits, in what he thought was the easiest way.

<smoke and fire (whitecitylight remix) | moog_>

With the corner's entrance looming, Archangel shifted down, ready to accelerate hard and fast. As they entered the corner, he took the outside, before Tsugumi could drift wide.

"Wh- Wait, what!?"

She could only watch in awe as the sleek black car soared majestically past her. That vast speed, he made it look so easy, like the car wasn't even breaking a sweat.

Was that it?

Was that the difference between where she was, and where she wanted to be?

It looked so beautiful.

She wanted to catch up to him, but she knew that she was unable to. Despite that, she tried her best, not giving up right there and then. However, it was all for naught. The black car just kept gaining distance from her.

Unfortunately for the crowd that had peppered the sidelines of the course, they were not expecting a complete domination. One such optimal viewing point was along a series of consecutive hairpin corners, where two particular people were situated: A father, and his child.

"At least it's close enough to home, Hayate." The father spoke. "You would have had to gone yourself if it was somewhere farther away."

His child laughed "Dad... I know you wanted to come too."

That seemed to silence him, being unable to find a response. And at the right moment too, the high-pitched scream of... well, it wasn't a Honda inline-4, that was for sure.

"So, do you know who's battling?"

Hayate's response was "A girl that was my senior at school, and... someone else. Archangel, they're called. They're starting to get really famous."

"Mm, I know of Archangel. I didn't know that he was battling someone from your school, though."

"She graduated years ago, th-"

Hayate was cut off by the volume increasing dramatically, as Archangel's car slid into view, rounding the first of the four hairpins. It seemed like only a second, before it had reached the second, rounding the corner at near-impossible speeds.

"...That was quick... where's Kotonami, though?"

It was three long seconds, before the scream of the S2000 engine could be heard, and six until the pure white Civic drifted wide around the first hairpin.

"Hmm... that's quite problematic. I think she may have just lost. And so soon, too."

Hayate just nodded. "Yeah."

Archangel did not let up after that, until the very end, by which time the black sports car had completely disappeared from her view.

Arc: NJRS - #005
Title: External Drive

Nokav Vertigo, Rocky Mountains, USA
Friday, 17th February 2215
14:50.12

The first practice sessions were already completed, but yet another Jennter trailer arrived in the paddock.
Such a move was speculated the whole week, as Jennter registered two craft for this event, but arrived with only one. Patrick and Aurora thus had to take turns with the practice sessions.
Something the size of a race craft was extracted from this trailer, but it was hidden behind a big, white holographic wall. Several other components with Jennter logos were transported into the pits as well.

"A bit late, but I am glad that it arrived now." commented Nico Bovier, overseeing the construction efforts taking place "Patrick should be able to practise tomorrow."
"I am sorry, but I think the robot should fly this craft first." disagreed Linda Greyson, right next to him.
"Patrick is our lead pilot, that's clear. Hmm..." he was rethinking his idea "You are right, it is an untested prototype."
Linda nodded in response "I'll help out the mechanics now!"
"She's nervous, but also visably excited." whispered Nico, seeing the young woman walking into the garage.


Saturday, 18th February 2215
07:56.34

It was soon time for the final practice session of the weekend. Patrick Rouser would pilot the standard JAG-F12.212/5 while Aurora was to test a factory fresh JAG-F12.212/5B. Only a single letter was added, but several vast modifications were to be shown once the lights go green.
"Rouser, ready." noted Linda at the control stands. The number one craft of the team was levitating calmly in the Jennter pit.
"Australis, systems ready. Keep in mind to activate PSS once on track." she continued. Her craft was levitating in a similar fashion, but it appeared to be less stable and lower. It's shape seemed much different from the standard craft piloted by her team mate.

08:00.00

"Patrick, exit." ordered Nico and the white-orange craft shot out of it's garage onto the track.
Half a minute later it was time for the other craft "Aurora, exit. Activate PSS as soon as possible."
A seemingly bulky version of a JAG-F12.212 entered the track, for a brief moment it seemed almost incapable of turning and travelled at low speed.
"Activating PSS." spoke Aurora for the record and suddenly several components of the craft dropped down.

A ring formed around the craft, connected through thick wiring and four rods. Aurora didn't go full speed yet, but after just passing through a handful of the tricky corners this track offers, it became clear to anyone watching.

"An external anti-gravtiy generator?" observed Hiroyuki Arimoto, the technical director of AG-Systems "Not bad."
"That thing looks fragile." commented a Tigron engineer "We'll let 'em have it."

After two warm-up laps, Aurora was given the signal to do two timed laps.
The craft floated way lower over the track, given the extensions surrounding it, it resembled a classic hovercraft a little.
Patrick clocked some lap times already and retired to pits again. His time was currently topping an otherwise empty leaderboard. However, just her first hotlap displaced him to second by over one and a half second.

"Now there are many factors playing into the lap time. Jennter wasn't able to provide a lot of testing time to their pilots this weekend." commented the trackside announcer "It will be interesting to see the further development this session."

An hour later Aurora dropped to P2, but close to the leading Angelus AX2.2_r9 of Gareth Ardos and followed by a Qirex LS12 v2.8. Patrick was only able to maintain P6, but limited the distance to nine tenths.
Linda was jumping up and down in the garage of Jennter cheering "It works!" multiple times and to everyone's surprise ended up hugging Aurora as she climbed out of her new craft.

The referenced song title of Part 49 was Drift Away by Junkie XL.

[FTA|s3_10.0: Part 50.0] Crash Test del Ragno 01

---

<22150317-19>

Friday, March 17th, 2215

Monte Carlo Nouveau, Monte Carlo, Monaco.

13:45:27

"Sometimes the best solution is to not fight fire with water, but fire itself. While I would not stoop that far, I will defend myself the best I can."

That was Brandon's response to what was the as yet unexplained elephant in the room.

The practice round for the third 2215 race was under way, the race taking place at Monte Carlo Nouveau. In Angelus' control room, one extra computer was present, which was being used by Brandon. Technically, it could have been classified as a non-standard computing terminal, had the non-standard software been discovered. Every so often, he would plug in bits of data he received from the practice run. However, said data was not from his own craft...

Brandon was analysing the vast amounts of data gathered from the other teams' crafts, and using it to calculate as accurate a prediction he could on the craft's peak performance, as well as their average race performance.

"Can you explain to me exactly why you're doing that for?" A technician asked him.

"I want to see if there's more blatant cheating going on here." He replied. "If there's some massive, or otherwise unexplained gain in some team's performance, I want to know... tch, where is that failure of a team!?"

More people looked up at him, intrigued by his outburst.

"Uh... which team is this now?"

Brandon just looked at them. "Pfft, yeah, they're so remarkable at being unable to qualify for a single race that you've gone and forgotten about them. I'm referring to Gravitesse."

A raucous laughter followed. Gravitesse was a name that was vaguely familiar to them, as it had popped up in the various participants list, starting from the 2212 inaugural F12000 season. However, no-one had ever seen them actually participate, until one particular qualifying round where the dull grey and cobalt blue craft was seen making its rounds... painfully slowly. It actually seemed like it was going at the equivalent of Rapier in a Phantom race.

For three whole years, three entire seasons, not once did the team qualify in a single race in any of those seasons. It was a wonder how the team was even staying afloat despite their competitive incompetence. And yet, they were seen in the first two races' qualifying rounds this year, to the exact same levels of success.

The craft they had used the entire time, the DXG T73, was modified mechanically over the years, but still retained the awful in-house chassis it started out with, seeming to be an ancient chassis despite being developed in-house in 2211. Its design was uninspiring and uninteresting, and, even by 2212 standards, heavily outdated in both design and aerodynamic function.

There were two good reasons why Brandon couldn't find the craft. The first was fairly simple: It just wasn't participating in the practice round.

In Gravitesse's pits, a simulator lay. The sim was running the current course in the race's layout, where their two pilots were getting their practice in. It was a loophole in the regulations, which didn't state specifically that the practice run had to be done physically on the circuit.

With Angelus' allotted time over, and Gareth back in the pits, Brandon announced something they did every year on that day.

"Alright, St. Patty's Day, let's go."

"Ah, you're right! But tomorrow's the qualifier."

"So don't drink as much! We all can't afford to spend tomorrow hungover, but it's still tradition, and it helps boost morale. Come on." He motioned to get Gareth, and everyone else within that room, to follow him out.

"I... [sigh], fine."

Unable to find a rebuttal, Gareth walked out after Brandon. The small subgroup of Angelus team members headed out after the long day of testing and pre-preparations for the race to celebrate St. Patrick's Day by moderately consuming alcohol. Yeah, doesn't sound that great, but they did have to be alert enough for the following day's qualifier.

------------
Saturday, March 18th, 2215

13:10:09

Thankfully, none of those that celebrated the night before were hungover, having known their duties for the day's qualifying round, and did not drink excessively. All team members were present and accounted for...

...except... Brandon. He walked in a bit later than usual.

"Brandon, you're late. Did you drink too much?" A control tech joked.

He shook his head. "No... I was responsible about my intake, I always am... unfortunately I did not pay enough attention to the time, nor my tiredness. I simply slept in."

"Alright, well, qualifying's almost over, we used the data you gathered to help Gareth get a few times in, along with setting up the craft for the track and the obviously horrendous weather."

As per that day's forecast, the weather was rather not optimal, as their qualifying round had to be taken in a torrential downpour.

"Good, hopefully the data's good enough. Frankly, this course is a b*tch, and this rain is helping precious little."

The times were pretty slow in relation, but it was not the fault of the craft. The rain was so bad, visibility was extremely poor. Gareth was piloting on his mental image of the track alone, which was good enough to allow him to make several clean laps. However, they were far slower than his usual dry runs. And just like that, Gareth's usual high-place grid position was taken away from him, having to settle with a mid-pack start.

------------
13:01:39

Preparing for their qualifying session, a certain girl was stopped in her tracks when the craft she usually piloted had had its appearance changed, now seeing two very non-identical craft.

"I... I... I-cosa!? My ship... why is my ship different?" (What?)

Hearing her outburst and general confusion, the man she had befriended, her co-pilot, spoke out.

"That was my doing. We need all the edge we can get. While Kotova ensured our craft were on a level playing field, I think your prodigal talent can benefit from an upgrade much more than I can."

"So... now I am unfairly more competitive than you are? Hmmm..."

She looked to her newly upgraded craft, then back to Leon.

"...I don't know how to feel about this, but it won't impede my will to race. I'll try it, thanks."

Several soaking laps later, it was clear that Lucia's talent could only get her so far, the heavy craft only allowing her a 12th place grid position. It was far better off than Leon, who could only manage 18th.

Tigron, meanwhile, seemed to be having a very good run, their hive-type unit being pushed to its utter limits to essentially brute force their way through the rain. However, they didn't get pole position. That feat went, interestingly, to FEISAR, whose unrivalled handling nabbed them the top grid position, but only just. The gap between the top times was so close, that the second FEISAR pilot was only able to make do with fourth, despite being three-hundredths of a second slower than the lead pilot.

------------
Sunday, March 19th, 2215

14:51:18

The final preparations were being made by all teams competing, especially Angelus. The final checks were to tune the craft in just the right way, to maximise their chances of victory.

Brandon, meanwhile, was looking over the final qualification list. Several notable events had occurred during the qualification. The first was to do with Assegai. Their second craft had suffered a catastrophic failure of its ECU. An investigation was carried out, but the incident was ruled a freak accident, since their lead craft qualified without any issues. The second incident affected Harimau entirely. Both of their craft's thrust systems started to cut in and out intermittently. The second craft failed altogether before the end of the session, but their lead craft was able to get one time in. It was hardly their best, but they had qualified.

The most notable event, however, was something the team wasn't aware of. Brandon noticed something odd.

"Wait..."

Looking outside, he saw an official display, showing, amongst other things, a full list of all 26 qualified pilots, and their respective grid positions...

26. Tomi Makkinen. Gravitesse.

"...well, that's new. But where was the proof of their qualification?"

"Working on it now."

As the technicians looked into finding any shred of evidence that the Luxembourgish team had actually qualified, the 5 minute warning sounded out.

"Oh, whatever," Brandon said dismissively, "Just focus on the race now."

And then, it happened. One by one, the 26 grid positions opened up, and the craft were raised up to the track's surface. Exactly 18 seconds later, the 26th and final craft rose up to the surface. When Brandon saw it, his eyes widened in pure horror, and he made a rather odd noise, before simply yelling out.

"What the fff... hell is that thing!?"

Finally, two days later, the second reason why Brandon couldn't find their old, standard DXG T73 was revealed to him. The craft they had brought was not that, but a secret project, perfected by the time the current race weekend came about.

It looked, terrifyingly to the leader of the Australian team, a Cobalt Blue Tarantula, the titular colour accurately matching the secondary colour's patterns over the grey colour of the real arachnid.

"What the... th-the f*ck kinda sick joke is this!?"

The design of the craft was a proper quad-hull craft, with the rear wings of the craft somewhat doubling as two extra rear hulls to complete the look of the tarantula. The front of the craft sported two large headlights, with six smaller ones surrounding it.

"Now how am I supposed to be observing this race, with that thing popping up at every turn!?"

"And if they qualify for another race? Just... try and get over it maybe? Or you give the calls to Gareth and we get someone else to observe the race and make the strategies for you?"

"...I tried the former. Multiple times. I'm 55, and I'm still sh*t-scared of spiders. So I'll trust you lot to make strategies to tell Gareth."

The crew member just stared at Brandon, then shook his head. "Fine, let's do this."

It took them another couple of minutes to prepare, by which point the race was just about to start...

...after another 17 minutes following a minor farcical disruption.

3, 2, 1... GO!

<15:17:28_>
<monte carlo nouveau: long fwd_>
<race: lap 01 of 59_>

...
02.	KIR311.0.67.297	#67	Natalia Kireyeva	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4
03.	VAL027.1.66.297	#66	"Valkyria"	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4
...
06.	WHI353.0.12.894	#12	"Lady White"	Qirex	LS12 v2.8
...
10.	ARD889.0.19.194	#19	Gareth Ardos	Angelus	AX2.2_r9
...
12.	SCA308.0. 7.329	# 7	Lucia Scarlatti	Crinale	F0-RG08/01792
...
16.	SIN959.0.10.576	#10	Sino	EG.X	EG.FF-201 II
...
18.	TUR847.1.13.329	#13	Leon Turner	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536
...
26.	MAK569.0.55.791	#55	Tomi Makkinen	Gravitesse	DXG/P T74.02

<tarantula | pendulum_>

With the rain pouring, the race began. Those with higher thrust outputs shot ahead, some of them even overtaking a couple of the lower placed craft. In the case of Angelus, Gareth swiftly overtook the Icaras it was sitting beside, before the faster craft crept past. Now up to speed, it rounded the first, high-speed corner, and attempted to take the Jennter ahead of it. It was quite a slow effort, but the pink craft had successfully overtaken the slower handling German team.

"Rockets."

...until it was pushed back behind the still tightly-spaced pack.

In the case of Gravitesse, way back at the end of the grid, the sole qualified craft sailed past the similarly qualified Triakis craft, and seemed to stay there, despite the Australian team having a higher top-end speed. Rounding the first corner, the result was very similar to the mid-pack where Angelus and Icaras were.

"Plasma."

BOOM.

That, along with being shoved violently against the wall from the blast, did not help them in the slightest. Triakis knew they had the combative advantage, and could have used practically anything to re-take their position.

"Missile."

Firing straight back, both teams were back to a more level playing field. It was inadvertent, but the two teams started to help each other out. Triakis usually were rather horrible on the curvier circuits, such as Monte Carlo. So was Piranha, yet they were somehow coping surprisingly well, sticking around the mid-pack, behind Angelus.

By the end of the first lap, Gareth had been able to use his craft to his advantage, and work his way past Icaras.

"Turbo."

Gareth just shook his head. "...Yep, could have done with that earlier, but whatever. I can work with this."

"Turbo."

The white and azure craft shot ahead past the line, up to the first of the two Jennter craft. The second was two craft ahead, in 6th. Rounding the corner, Gareth took the outside, and slipped past Patrick Rouser.

"Something something I can't speak German bye." He commented, just as he took 8th from him.

Naturally, the friendly rivals fought back. Or at least, they tried to.

"EM Cloak."
"Missile."

The missiles shot from the craft towards the Angelus craft in a straight line, the cloak preventing a lock-on. Due to the Cloak's effects, the projectile was skewed off in a different direction around the craft, sending it flying past it, bouncing off the walls before exploding away from them.

At the very front, Tigron were far ahead, having gotten away from the two FEISAR craft and gaining distance from them, racing in their usual formation. They were 15 seconds ahead, then 16, then 17, all before they knew it. They had the immense speed, and they both knew how to use all of it extremely effectively.

Angelus were also gaining positions, when Gareth got a rather interesting radio message from Brandon. However, he was stopped in his tracks from a rather odd happening. Was it no real surprise that it was Gravitesse's doing?

------------

The spider-designed craft, by which point Brandon had gotten used to the sight of, was ahead of more craft than was expected, in 18th place, right behind Triakis. The two teams had been going back and forth the whole race, stealing positions from one another. However, despite the surprise of the once infamously uncompetitive team gaining places all of a sudden, they were far back enough that Gareth could see theirs and Triakis' battle ahead of him.

Just as suddenly, the grey and blue ship made its move. The Gravitesse ship gained and maintained a rather large burst of speed. A turbo, this was not. Gravitesse had gained an inexplicable power increase that was far from befitting their official performance statistics. Easily overtaking the slowly turning tank that was the Triakis craft, they continued forth, pulling away from them at a rather incredible rate, considering the aforementioned tank boasted a very high top-end speed.

Despite this though, Brandon had felt the need to deliver that somewhat contradictory radio message.

"Gravtesse aren't a problem, Gareth, Gravitesse are not a problem. You do not need to worry about them, just push on as nor--..."

Stopped in his tracks at the event that had unfolded before his eyes, he had just completely stopped talking...

But that event wasn't the craft's permanent burst of speed.

Several seconds after the burst of speed began, the craft itself began to vibrate. The engines started to make an erratic noise, along with the higher-pitched whine of the overpowered thrusters pushed beyond its limits. That noise only grew louder the further away from Triakis it went. Until...

<contender eliminated_>

The craft started slowing down rapidly, while dipping forwards. The engines started making a noise, not too dissimilar to them powering down. However, they made one final noise, the craft burst forth one final time, and the nose raised up almost vertically, the craft entering a very abnormal pirouette, the engines having completely cut out, the craft emitting total silence.

<air for life | above and beyond with andy moor_>

Seeing the craft fail so spectacularly, the Triakis craft sideshifted at just the right moment to avoid the spinning craft, passing it before the craft finally crashed to the ground. The sideshift was also in order to place the craft in just the right spot, at the right angle into the corner that immediately followed the scene of Gravitesse's odd elimination. It was a sharp corner, so full airbrakes were applied to the craft, but that was still not enough. The sound of the thrusters dimming could be heard, as if they had lost some power. Simply, the thrusters were dialled back a little, slowing the tri-hulled craft down somewhat in order to make the turn. That last move was successful, the craft successfully rounding the corner as cleanly as the heavy tank could.

Gareth, meanwhile, was lightly laughing. If he wasn't in control of a near 1000km/h racing craft, he would be absolutely doubling over in loud, raucous laughter.

"Yep... just as I'd expected from Gravitesse!"

Unfortunately, the Australian was unable to catch up to the leading Russians, the hive unit propelling them forward at, again, a much faster speed than the official performance statistics suggested. Unlike Gravitesse, though, the K-Bystrota was a far more stable craft than the DXG/P T74 that was the Luxembourgish machine. Gareth was barely able to catch up to the two FEISARs through his greater top speed, but a series of stray mines dropped him further back, the iconic blue and yellow team navigating the subsequent corners at a much faster rate than the white and azure craft could manage.

"Surprise!"

"Cannon."

"Ghh... No."

"Bomb."

The Crinale of Lucia Scarlatti got exactly 6 rounds of cannon fire into Gareth's Angelus, before the bomb he fired flew straight into the black and orange pursuer, sending it sideways into the wall. Gareth was aiming to re-catch that FEISAR craft, he wanted no interruptions, no impediments. He also required extreme levels of mental fortitude.

"Brandon. I need you to shut up for a while. I need to focus."

"...Zone?" He asked, knowing what Gareth was aiming for.

"Yeah, Zone."

"Alright, then. Maintaining radio silence. Go get 'em."

The final push of the team that race had started. Gareth gradually slipped into his record-winning mindset, focusing on using his strategy to guide him through the corners at as high a speed as the craft could maintain, not just taking the handling for granted. His ultimate aim was to maintain as high a speed as he could, in order to catch up to the marginally slower, yet faster turning FEISAR ahead of him.

The tactic seemed to be working, the first of the two European craft entering the view of the Australian. But... it was just too late.

<race complete_>
<fifth place_>

"...Yeah, P5, Gareth. It's fine, you tried your best. Better than an elimination, that's for sure. At least we're in the points."

The referenced album title of Part 50 was Crash Test 01 by Bloom 06.

[FTA|s3_11.0: Part 51.0] Shadows of the Past

---

Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo, Japan.

"Sometimes, it is not exactly clear who one should trust. If one is in a more common, everyday life, then this problem may not arise as much, but it still is prevalent. In my line of work, however, not even my own clients receive anything that could be called trust. I only provide them the service they require, nothing more."

------------
Day 18.

08:10:22

Gelorumfan2182 <gelorumfan2182@gmail.com>
███ ██/██/2215 7:04 AM
You <kr-aan@dkg85.x29.jp>
Attachment: "3c41e329203d8c653403781961d01ca5.pdf"

---Decoded Data: Type A7 Encoding.---
ngs continue like this, anti-grav racing will become a pre-scripted piece of theatre dedicated to m.

Some more data for your perusal. You may hate the whole scene, but I have a good idea of what you are plotting. Why else would you come to me of all people in the first place?

------------

The message was brief, but the vast majority of the content was within the single attachment. Immediately, Rei had downloaded the document, and had begun an automated scan for the vital data within it. The heavily fragmented string of text up where the salutation would have usually gone was, in fact, a codephrase, devised by Rei and the Race Overseer in another prior message. The source material was a fragment of a comment made by Natasha Belmondo, the material published on July 5th, 2160.

The data itself within the attachment, once decoded like the email, and analysed, provided some very promising information, both pre- and post-Cataclysm. The data outlined some rather shady dealings and behind the scenes decisions made by even some very surprising subjects. And one simple section, headlined with a name that seemed to rear it's nasty, disgusting head again.

Sefaialon.

"...Fascinating."

Quite a fair portion of the pre-Cataclysm information he was already aware of, but small details, along with all of the post-Cataclysm data, was well coveted data that was now within his hands. Unfortunately, there was not much, if at all, by way of data pertaining to Erebus. Instantly, he fired a reply to the woman.

You <kr-aan@dkg85.x29.jp>
███ ██/██/2215 8:22 AM
Gelorumfan2182 <gelorumfan2182@gmail.com>

---Encoded Data: Type A7.---
37564=1

This information is much appreciated. I believe you may be a great asset in accomplishing both of our goals. Let me know if you require payment for this information, it shall be delivered to you the instant you accept.

Kurokawa Rei.

The response came almost immediately.

"No, it's all good. I'm fine to keep giving you whatever data you need at no extra cost to you."

Simple, and to the point.

Now, information brokers, while vastly knowledgeable, were still human, they were limited to only the knowledge they had obtained. That was what Rei was accomplishing. To meet his ends, to look further into the primary organisation he was pursuing, he had to reverse the roles, and seek information himself, rather than be the one to provide it.

"Hmmm..."

Loading up an older, but entirely relevant document onto his tech shades, Rei stepped outside to walk around the city, beginning to read it in detail, to connect the dots between it and the most recent piece of evidence.

"...well, yeah, of course! He's so cool!"

...The answer was starting right at his face, he knew there was a connection in this specific document...

"The way he just screamed past that kid so early on, it was the best!"

It... what? No, no, the document. The document was very important, analysing it, uninterrupted, in its entirety could finally signal the end of--

"Gaaaah! I can't wait for Archangel's next battle!"

...Damn it. He just couldn't resist, could he? He found himself walking towards the small group of university students.

"...I don't think he was trying this round."

"Eh!?" One of the girls spun around to look at the sudden new voice.

"Ah, great, another one. At least you can fangirl with someone else now, Ichinose."

The girl called Ichinose bore green dyed hair, which was long at the sides and short at the back, and was sitting underneath a pair of goggles. She was wearing an orange minidress, a long white coat that reaches below her knees, and a set of high heel boots.

Rei's eyebrow raised.

"I take it you're not interested in Archangel, then?"

One of the boys in the small group shook his head. "No, I am interested in Archangel and his battles, but I'm not completely obsessed with him like she is."

"Hey!"

"I mean, it is true." Another one spoke up, "It's either the F12000 or Archangel with you."

"I can't help it if I like them both!" She retorted, before looking back up at the man. "Anyway, what did you mean by Archangel wasn't trying in that race?"

"Were you there?" He asked. "His car was physically moving slower than in the battle against Kazuya Iwasaki."

"But he screamed past Kotonami so early on in the race!"

"Yes. So? Perhaps Tsugumi Kotonami wasn't as quick as Kazuya Iwasaki. In fact, I do know that to be the case."

The girl looked confused. "You do? How?"

Rei's face remained unchanging. "It is simple. My occupation. I am an Information Broker. Information, data, such as a racer's performance, it is what I deal in."

Her eyes went wide with intrigue. "Woah... so do you know him? Does he get this data from you?"

"While I do know Archangel... he is not one of my clients."

"I... see. So, uh, could I get your name? If you don't mind?"

"Rei Kurokawa."

"Ah, nice to meet you, Rei! I am Riku Ichinose. I'm currently a physics major."

"Uh... huh."

Riku then stood up, and began to walk along with her friends, who had started to leave after checking the time.

"I have some plans with my friends, but hopefully we'll meet again!"

As she left, the black-clad man was left wondering just what he had gotten himself into, remembering to resume reading the currently loaded document on his shades at the last possible moment.

The referenced song title of Part 51 was Shadows of Our Past by Daiki Kasho.

[FTA|s3_12.0: Part 52.0] In the News, Part 1

---

<22150320>

Monday, March 20th, 2215

"Good evening, and welcome to the sporting news. I'm your host, Natalie Winters.

"In our bulletin tonight, a surprise appearance in the F12000 race at Monaco, the Anti-Gravity Purity Alliance launch another attack against the F12000 Race Commission, and shock as a runaway gravity-ball severely injures a bystander.

"But first, our top story. For the first time in their tenure, Gravitesse Anti-Gravité were allowed to participate in an F12000 race, following a qualification round that placed them just on the grid. Unfortunately, their three-year long dream was not to last, as reliability issues soon took effect, and they were forced to be eliminated. Later investigation proved that their elimination was caused by the apparent failure of an engine limiter module. The shell and several critical components were not rated to the power and speed the craft begun to put out, which resulted in the failure and subsequent crash of the craft.

"After a catastrophic qualification in pouring rain, Angelus was only able to start 10th on the grid, which translated to a 5th place finish for the Australian team. The other Oceanic team, Triakis, was unable to achieve a position better than last place, the worst finish for them thus far."

------------

"In related news, the Anti-Gravity Purity Alliance has once again attacked the Race Commission. The group, created by former teams Auricom and AG Systems, additionally are comprised of Angelus and a few other unknown groups and members. The group hacked more displays at Monaco, as well as launching a new campaign against the commission. They warned that they were, quote, 'acquiring enough evidence to make their claims irrefutable, yet they obtained a lot evidence against them at the current moment.'

"A large group of independent members staged what was described by the group as an 'unofficial, unauthorised' activist protest. The protest delayed the race start for 17 minutes, before security and race officials apprehended the members of the AGPA. Yet another disruption occurred after the race, where more members, joined by a few who escaped the prior apprehension, interrupted the podium ceremony. They were all unceremoniously rendered unconscious by both Tigron racers, Natalia Kireyeva and the one known only as 'Valkyria', who had finished first and second respectively."

------------

"In local sport, because I love my country, the Supercars Melbourne 400 ended with a clean victory for Andrew Hayes when rival Ashley Douglas retired from the race due to a very unusual and similarly catastrophic systems failure, and the resulting crash that stemmed from it.

"The race was a very close one, with Ashley keeping up very closely with Andrew, a battle between the two breaking out. After several laps of close, intense racing, the electrics in Ashley's 522kW V8 Sandman Supercar shorted, jamming the throttle wide open and causing a vital component to explode, dislodging one of the hydraulic steering modules. When Ashley tried to turn as the car coasted to a stop from the lack of primary braking power, the module twisted and deformed, while providing very minimal steering. The car ended up slamming into the wall at 152km/h, after the late deployment of the emergency brakes by Douglas.

"Thankfully, despite the high speed crash, the 3-time Supercars champion walked away from the accident completely unscathed. After the race was over, Ashley was quoted in the post-race interview as being 'completely okay', and will definitely be living to see another race."

------------

"And finally, a shocking event occurred at last week's gravity ball game today, in the match against England and Italy. In the final minutes of the match, Gilberto Sportiello missed the goal, and sent the grav-ball flying into the spectators, hitting one of them in the face. They had to be taken to hospital, where they're currently recovering from their injuries. The match ended in favour of Italy despite that, winning 36 to 32.

"That was today's sport bulletin, thank you so much for your company! Coming up next is the lottery results... I hope I'll see you tomorrow night~!"

[FTA|s3_13.1: Part 53.1] Some Kind of Blue-Green

---

Nikko, Tochigi, Japan.

"A good Information Broker always keeps up to date with their data. Unfortunately, when the only data that exists is out of date or incomplete, then problems may arise from the deductions derived from it, since they would most likely be inaccurate to the reality of the situation."

------------
Day 23.

10:13:44

A tiny kei car casually glided down one of Nikko's local mountain passes. Silently, gracefully rounding the corners, as if the brake was never used, only the accelerator being released before every turn. Its driver, noting every square millimetre of the length of road. The manipulator of the wheel, of the pedals before him, imagining he was in a larger, more powerful, and faster car, in the dead of night, with one other car ahead of him. Multiple calculations a second ran through his mind. Braking zones, peak power output, suspension settings...

...that was the power of the master strategist, Rei Kurokawa.

------------
10:21:09

That very same kei car pulled into a parking lot of a small shop, and walked inside to buy some refreshments. As he walked out, there was one certain thing outside, waiting to surprise him.

"...what!?"

It was the one car he was imagining mere minutes before.

The car was Archangel's next battle, his next opponent.

There was no mistaking it. It was, after all, a much sought-after vehicle, especially due to its rarity.

It was a 2193 Yamutsu Tempest GTA, painted in a two-tone cyan and black colour.

It was not enough for the man to walk around the car, taking in every last part of it.

"...it even has the original optional spoiler... This is amazing."

"Hey, uh... can I help you?"

An older looking man was standing a short distance away, looking at Rei take in the finer details of the rare car.

"Yeah." He replied, not turning around. "This is a very beautiful thing. You wouldn't happen to know owns this rare piece of automotive excellence, do you?"

"Well... I've been driving it."

That revelation caused the man to glance up at him.

"You!? Really?"

With a push of a button, the car bleeped, its doors unlocking.

"Since you seem know of the Tempest GTA, let me impart something else to you. This very car is the fastest down the Momiji Line."

"...I knew of that. What I wasn't aware of was the driver of this machine..."

He chuckled.

"...and now I know."

"Well," The middle-age man forced out. "I must be off, I'm a very busy man, you see."

Rei nodded.

"As am I."

"In that case, let us go our separate ways. Goodbye."

With a small smile, the man entered the car, and reversed out of the parking space, speeding away.

"...Goodbye, Nakajima."

------------
12:50:39

Lunchtime had been going for about 10 minutes. A small group of friends were chatting happily on the rooftop of their school.

"...I'm a little scared, to be honest." One of them said. A female, judging by their school uniform. "I don't think I've ever been this scared before..."

"Eeeh?" Another girl spoke out. "I've only seen you be scared about one other thing? What are you scared about this time?"

The one who was scared look up at the other girl with a slightly bowed head. "You've... seen the next announcement, haven't you? ...Archangel, I mean."

"No? Why?"

A quick search of the pseudonymous touge racer's website revealed all

Next race: Nakajima ???, Yamutsu Tempest GTA【ES53】, Momiji Line, tomorrow @ 2200

"N-Nakajima!? But that's... you, isn't it?"

"Yeah, exactly."

Nakajima turned, and leaned against the chain link fence, looking outwards.

"That's why I'm scared... the race is tomorrow, and while my name isn't technically on the notice, it is m-... h-h-hold... on... no, wait! Where is it!?"

Suddenly, terror filled the junior high school-like face of the senior high school student.

"Where's what?" Yet another friend yelled out, an equal amount of terror in her voice, empathetic of her friend.

"It... It's gone! My..."

"...?"

"...My car... my ES53... it's gone!"

Arc: NJRS - #006
Title:Aurora Reborn

The race in Nokav Vertigo was a mix of feelings for the Jennter team. Initially the improved JAG-F12.212/5b craft seemed to outperform its previous iteration. However, a system malfunction caused by a power surge stalled the craft of Aurora again, fortunatly this time without disabling all safety systems.

Jennter Enterprises HQ, Düsseldorf, Germany
Tuesday, 20th February 2215
10:12.44

Linda and Nico were discussing the next race together with Patrick and Aurora.
"The craft felt great...until it gave up." reported Aurora her own experience with the new ship.
Linda looked through a window, avoiding the other faces "This concept works better, no doubt."
"Our shields are bad enough, but being unreliable is a death sentence in AG racing. Literally." Patrick commented "But I've talked about it with Aurora."
"It felt great. If you can fix the reliability problem-" Aurora added to that.

"Shut up, tin can." Linda threw at her without batting an eye "It is only natural that a rushed prototype won't last a race. That's why something spareable had to pilot it."
Aurora stood in the room in silence. Her facial expression didn't change.
"Hey! She didn't attack you!" Patrick broke the silence "So why are you having a go at her?"
Linda turned away from the window to glare at him "I didn't graduate in Gravity Vehicular Engineering to hear a machine complaining at me."
"I may leave the room, I sense your blood pressure increasing." the android noted, ready to leave.
"Huh?" came from Nico, almost unnoticed by the others.

Linda sighed "Whatever, I'll optimise the manufacturing process for the craft. And I'll refine the performance of the test craft."
The engineer went past Aurora, who ended up staying in the room.

"Don't think too much about it, Aurora" Nico tried to cheer her up.
"Unlike...mother, I understand my existence as an object." she merely commented "Linda thinks very high of herself - I think so too about her."
Nico nodded understandingly "Also, you started to discover the functions of your sensores, it seems."
"Indeed. Though their purpose seems odd to me." Aurora agreed "Whatever you have in mind, master."

Saturday, 24th February 2215
19:44.21

Aurora had her own room in the Jennter headquaters, as she was seen as the 'child' of the company.
Someone knocked on her door, it appeared to be physically weak.
"It's Linda." a voice came through the wood of the slideable door.

Aurora was surprised, Linda never visited her and mostly ignored her existence. However, she let her in "Door, open."
"Do you have feelings?" she asked bluntly, sitting down in a chair frontal to the couch Aurora was occupying all the while.
"I have thoughts. However, my internals are not cramping up when they are complicated for me." she answered.
"What is your physical composition?" Linda asked next. Her voice was growing in curiousity.
"For packaging reasons I possess the same phyical performance of a trained male adult." the android explained "I don't have any organs, therefore I don't have to eat food."
Linda was mustering her "That's some nice packaging then..."
"Of course I perform better than a woman of my dimensions. But that's more than enough for AG racing."
Linda frowned "That was...a joke..."
"Oh, I see!" Aurora was surprised "I did not expect you to joke around with me. So I suppressed my sense for humour."
"You have that?" Linda was wondering "Anyway, what about your senses?"
As per order Aurora continued "My eyes are high definition cameras. I can move them individually, but usually don't do that, to not make people feel uncomfortable."
"You are quite sensible" the engineer commented.
Aurora smiled "I considered the benefits of staying on good terms with the people I have to work with."
"Right, so your ears are microphones?" Linda asked next.
"Indeed. Just plain microphones, they don't mimic the functionality of a human eardrum. Same for my eyes. However, my voice is generated through actual vocal cords."
"What, how and why?"
Aurora smiled about it "Simply to make my expressions appear natural. This also allows me to whistle and so on. And I have to drink water regularly, to generate saliva for the proper functionality of my lips. I can even spit!"
Linda was looking confused at the proud expression Aurora made for this statement, but she stayed curious "So are you also able to taste and smell?"
"Both yes. My tongue works similar to a human tongue, same for my nose. Master Bovier thought it would be useful if I had these abilities."
"Yeah, I can see that." Linda nodded "Wait, Bovier developed you then?"
Aurora shock her head "No, but he worked out my functionality. The actual programming and assembly was carried out by other people working for Jennter."

The referenced song title of Part 53.1 was Some Kind of Blue by deadmau5.

[FTA|s3_14.1: Part 54.1] The Return of the Devil

---

<22150331>

Friday, March 31st, 2215

Altima VIII, Toronto, Canada.

14:00:00

As the practice session got underway at the next location in the 2215 F12000 roster, several simulations were being run throughout the session by all the participants. It was just business as usual, but no-one was able to predict, or simulate, the conditions that befell one particular team.

As was the norm for 2215, Gareth worked with Angelus' technicians to finalise the craft's settings for the qualifying and race, going out once more after the settings were dialled in to perform some more tests and simulations.

Back in the control room for the Australian team, Brandon was staring at the screen before him, data being displayed on it. This time, it was only data that was sent back from Gareth's Xygen V.

Except he was not taking any of the data in, he was looking in the direction of the screen, but he was spacing out, his thoughts running with him...

A sight of the past... a vague, indeterminate location... the cutest, happiest smile he had ever seen... hair, as bright and vivid as an ocean sunset...

"Brandon!? What the hell? What's wrong with you today!?"

Suddenly, he was snapped out of his daydream. He simply turned slowly at the source of the voice, and scowled at the person his eyes laid upon.

"What?" He flatly asked.

"Do we have enough data? You've been sorta half staring at it, half spacing out for, like 20 minutes now. Are we good?"

Brandon simply glanced over the data once more, before standing up.

"Yeah, it's fine. As usual, I guess. I gotta get some air. Don't get concerned if I don't come back, I might just go back to the hotel."

And with that, he walked out.

------------

In a certain team's control room, a very special guest had entered, this time sporting vivid purple hair.

"Technically, I'm supposed to be checking in on all of the teams, but... well, do I really need to say it? You know already, Alli."

"Just... don't get caught, okay?" The other woman replied, holding her own arm. "I don't want to think about what would happen if Chris finds out about your bias to this team, let alone our relationship."

"I know, but I'll be fine." Purple haired Catherine reassured Alex. "So! Everything fine?"

Alex just smirked at her. "Please, you're the Race Overseer, you know how well we're doing today. Should turn out to be a pretty good race."

"'Should be'? I was sure you'd be saying something more closer to it definitely being a good race... or that you're going to win!"

She looked a little surprised by that. "I... I guess so... but you never know what will happen during a race."

"Hmph," She feigned discontent. "Seems like you need a little motivation. Fine, how about this? If you win this race... I'll give you something cool..."

The grin was met by a stunned silence from the team leader, her mouth slightly agape.

"..."

------------

"Change of plans, I am racing." Alex commanded Leon, having walked into the pits as he was just stepping out of the craft to continue fine-tuning it.

"What?"

Naturally, the second pilot was very shocked.

"I am sorry, I... I have to do this. She said if I win... Just this one race, I promise."

"Sure, but why me, though!?"

"You're number 13."

"I-- fine."

A short delay of notifying the stewards, Alex suited up, and slid into the craft. Turning it on, she had her own ECU map loaded on.

...loading...
modifying settings...
finalising control map...

GELORUM ACTIVATED.

As the whine of the craft powering up sounded throughout the pit, the grid started to rise up, sending Alex up onto the track to begin her practice session...

------------

...by which point Brandon had returned to Angelus' control room.

"Okay, whatever, I'm back. I cleared my head somewhat. What did I m..."

He saw the updated pilot list

"Wait... GEL...? Wh-Ohhh... no... What is she doing racing!? Sh-should... I get out there too?"

"You can't. We weren't expecting this, we only brought the one craft."

"Yeah, I know we did."

The technician looked up at him.

"Wait, you don't mean...?"

"I don't know what I mean. I'm not thinking logically. Just... give me a moment."

Opening his secret application that he used in the previous race, he started taking in data from the Crinale craft and compared it to how it ran prior to the pilot switch, the other craft being piloted by Lucia, and Gareth's own runs.

"...As I expected, I can't tell if this is all due to the craft being fine-tuned more than Lucia's craft, or if she's still got it. Gareth's good, but he's far from competitive to how Gelorum was back in 2209. I know how good she was back then, she was... scary. All I can do is think about how her ability was back then and in 2198. This data just isn't enough. Is she better than before? Not as good? Just as good? Has she mellowed out in regards to her racing style? Or is she just as scary? I just... don't... know."

The referenced album title of Part 54.1 was Return of the Space Cowboy by Jamiroquai.

[FTA|s3_13.2: Part 53.2] Challenge: Response

---

Nikko, Tochigi, Japan.

Day 23.

12:59:44

"It... It's gone! My..."

"...?"

"...My car... my ES53... it's gone!"

Immediately, all of Nakajima's friends clambered to the fence, looking out at the blank car space where a cyan and grey compact car should have been.

However, the high-schooler's outburst wasn't due to the shock of the missing car.

"...damn it... did he take it again!?"

"Huh?" One of the other girls asked. "Who took it?"

"Oh... my dad."

"Huuuh!? How do you know he took it?"

Nakajima simply pointed to another car, next to the blank spot. It was a silver two-door, four seat, mid-engined sports car.

"That's my dad's car."

Yamutsu was a Japanese car manufacturer that specialised in many different models. A larger, high-riding 5-door SUV in the XU-1, a sports utility in the Iseo, a hardened, mid-engined sports car in the Swan-3, and the compact that was Nakajima's car, the Tempest.

However, that was not all. There was one more car that was produced by the company. It was two-door, mid-engined, and very sporty, like the Swan-3, yet it was more luxurious. It contained the 366hp, 3.2L V6 Turbo that resided in the Iseo, and retained four full seats. As described by the company, it was a "family supercar".

Called the 3200R, it was Yamutsu's top of the line model... and the older Nakajima owned one.

Which was the exact car sitting beside the space where the other Yamutsu should have been.

A phone emerged from the bag of the Tempest's owner, who begun to call the one who borrowed it.

"Dad, hi, how are you?"

"I'm fine, and yourself?"

"...you took my car."

"I... it's not like you need it right now."

"Yeah, but... I need it for Saturday. Like, really, really need!"

"I know you do. But Saturday is Saturday, this is today, and right now, you're in school. I'll bring it back before you're done today."

"I... fine."

------------
Day 24.

10:09:48

"Dad, I've called my friends over... c-can I... um... can I get you to help me too?"

The father looked down at his offspring in surprise.

"No matter what, I will always love you, I will always be proud of you. And you can get my help with anything, so... why the timidness?"

"Ah, sorry. I thought that... maybe... you wouldn't want to help. I... I want to tune the Tempest."

The older man just smiled.

"Who said I wanted nothing to do with that? Come on, you know me more than anyone, I love cars."

"...you're right, dad. So anyway, my friends know what I want, so I can tell you now--"

"No turbo?"

"I-- Yeah, no turbo."

The small teenager had been very adamant in the past about the intense will to not have a turbo installed into the Tempest GTA, wanting to keep the responsiveness that was more important with a very lightweight car, such as the limited edition compact.

"Really, anything else. Intake upgrades, ECU timing, stabiliser tweaking, anything we can to make her faster. Just, no turbos."

At that point, the high schooler Nakajima's friends entered.

"Hey, you! And, hi, Mr. Nakajima."

"Hi," He greeted back. "I see you all got coerced into modifying the Tempest as well?"

The father chuckled.

"No, nothing like that! We've been racing fans since around the time we all became friends! We used to watch Kotonami race. She was our senior."

"Alright, so that explains why I was dragged along to see the last Archangel race. Well, if that black car of his really is that powerful to defeat a car like Kotonami's, then the power that GTA makes now might not be enough. Well, let's go...

"...I want Hayate to win!"

The referenced song title of Part 53.2 was Music:Response by The Chemical Brothers.

[FTA|s3_14.2: Part 54.2] The Russian's Dream

---

<22150401>

Saturday, April 1st, 2215

Altima VIII, Toronto, Canada.

14:00:00

<the seconds | porter robinson_>

At 2pm exactly, the qualifying began. Many of the other teams had set off to begin their outlaps. Angelus, in the meantime, were applying the final tweaks to their craft. It was a last-minute preventative measure, spurred on by Brandon due to the threat that was Alexandra taking the helm of Leon's craft. The pressure must have gotten to him, as at the very last moment, he had a final function added to the craft: One of many as yet unused buttons would be used to completely switch off the Xff engine's limiter.

A single minute later, the craft rose from the pits, ready to begin the outlap. Gareth shot off, taking the course at a slower, less taxing speed than usual. As he navigated the course, he begun to psyche himself up to begin pushing himself hard to attain pole position.

"...alright, let's go..."

On the final, fast corner, Gareth pushed as hard as he could without resorting to the delimiter button. He wanted to get in a run on his own merit, to attain as fast a time as he could. And, as he flew across the line at top speed to start his qualifying lap, he did just that.

978km/h was the speed Gareth was clocked at. Not the absolute fastest speed recorded that weekend, but it was the supposed upper limits of the Australian craft. Gareth carried that speed all the way up to the first corner. Turning into it, he applied the airbrakes about half a second later, his instincts pushing him to turn immediately into the second corner, the second half of the S-corner that matched the circuit's famous short layout.

The longer course snaked around the short course, with the tunnel section up through the main straight being the only sections of the normal circuit that was shared with it. The medium course followed the longer course for a partial section, before deviating towards the steep drop, rejoining the old course from there onward.

After navigating the shared medium/long section, the section specific to the long course followed. It ramped the difficulty up rather dramatically, starting to suddenly twist and shoot downwards to make up for the discrepancy in elevation. While the curves were flat, and sometimes were on a gentle incline, the drops varied in severity. Some were less steep than the short course's back straight, but a few were steeper, almost at a vertical drop. Of course, in those ultra-steep sections, mag-lock sections aided in the pilots' descent.

The final corner was an extremely steep, corkscrew-like hairpin that crossed above, and met up with, the final chicane series leading up to the tunnel section. The rest of the circuit was very well known, and Gareth set a rather blistering lap.

Up next was Alexandra, the equally sleek ship rising up from the pits to the track. After her outlap, her run began. The speed trap clocked her at a slower top speed, 966km/h, however the black and yellow-orange craft was still very competitive, the timing for the first section capturing a marginally faster time than Gareth. The times only got worse for the sole Angelus pilot from there on. Alexandra took advantage of the higher thrust, the RG08's system being pushed to it's limit. For some reason, in her hands, it also seemed to be much faster than Lucia's craft.

All of that culminated in a 1-2-3 grid position for the Russians: Alexandra on pole, and the two Tigron pilots just squeezing in past Gareth. Lucia could only manage 5th, just 0.002 seconds separating her from Gareth.

And, amusingly, Gravitesse were back beyond the bottom of the pack, having ever so slightly failed to qualify.

------------
<22150402>

Sunday, April 2nd, 2215

13:45:09

"...Y'know, when I said if you win, I meant the team, not you specifically."

Alex just grinned.

"Last I checked, Котёнок, I was a part of this team." [Kotonok, Kitten]

"You know what I mean!" Catherine giggled.

"I do, but you forgot to close that loophole. Better keep that 'something cool' you promised ready!"

"Only if you win!"

Catherine checked her watch.

"Oop, gotta go. Good luck, in any case!"

With her girlfriend gone, the leader of Crinale turned to Lucia.

"So you know what you're doing?"

The young Italian looked up at the older Russian. "I have no hope in hell of matching your pace. But I have a very good plan in place of getting around the problem of Tigron."

"And Angelus?"

"Ardos has never really been that much of a problem. His craft is his only strong suit. Well, that and possibly his luck."

------------

"Just letting you know, Gareth, I've gone and disabled the delimiter. I still don't understand why you didn't use it when you had the opportunity to. Raising the power was quite common in the distant past."

"I dunno... it still seemed a bit cheaty to me..." The pilot responded.

Brandon raised a hand to his chin. "That seems fair, I guess. Well, it wasn't as if I was forcing you to use it."

"I'm happy with 4th, I can make my way past those Tigrons."

"We all hope so, but just have yourself a good race, okay?"

"That won't be an issue." Gareth smiled.

The pre-race stuff over with, and all 26 craft having been raised to the grid following the 5 minute warning, the race finally begun.

3, 2, 1... GO!

<14:00:00_>
<altima viii: long course_>
<race: lap 01 of 60_>

01.	GEL255.2.13.329	#13	Alexandra Gelorum	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536
02.	KIR311.0.67.297	#67	Natalia Kireyeva	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4
03.	VAL027.1.66.297	#66	"Valkyria"	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4
04.	ARD889.0.19.194	#19	Gareth Ardos	Angelus	AX2.2_r9
05.	SCA308.0. 7.329	# 7	Lucia Scarlatti	Crinale	F0-RG08/01792
06.	WHI353.0.12.894	#12	"Lady White"	Qirex	LS12 v2.8
...
12.	SIN959.0.10.576	#10	Sino	EG.X	EG.FF-201 III
...

<control your body | pnau_>

The #13 craft of Alexandra Gelorum shot off the line, as did the other 25 craft. In an instant, it was evident that the formidable opponent of the past had lost none of her racing prowess, and was soon pulling away from the trailing Tigron craft.

"...Stratagem... uh..."

Natalia was at a loss for words. She had seen the FX400 races when she was still training, but this was the first time she saw the talent of the woman she looked up to during those times first hand. There were only so many strategies she could think of in this state, all of them unsatisfactory in their purpose of defeating the competition.

"...1. Stratagem 1. It's, uh, only way."

Stratagem 1 was very simple. They would use the vastly powerful hive unit to their advantage. Essentially, overpower and outspeed the black craft ahead of them. Fortunately for them, the first section was a mid- to high-speed section, perfect for their strategy to work. Of course, that was not taking weapons into consideration. And, despite the past of illegal weapons usage, Alexandra was a master weapons specialist. Her burst of speed was simply due to a raised limiter that was a part of her personal tuning map.

That, naturally, got in the way of their strategy. Catching up to the devil craft, Natalia and Valkyria made their move. From a straight line formation, the two, in a synchronized manner, sideshifted to either side of Gelorum. Natalia to the left, Valkyria to the right, they both slipped past her, before sideshifting back into their prior formation. Naturally, that would be where one would attack.

"Rockets."

Not even at the first corner, and the battle had already begun in such a bombastic fashion. The leading Crinale craft sideshifted to the left, out of the formation created by the two Tigron craft. At the same time, the right airbrake was deployed, skewing the craft at just the right angle to fire the rockets into both craft simultaneously.

"Error. Plasma."

There was a minor delay before the familiar purple energy sphere charged up in front of the leading Tigron craft. However, it was a direct hit. Alexandra was impeded, yet the extremely tough exterior, along with the powerful shielding system, took the hit very well.

"Ghh... no! I have to win!"

As the other Crinale ship of Lucia and the Angelus of Gareth flew past, all three craft were able to resume their battle. The new race leaders, however, were just starting their own battle, speeding around the first high-speed corner. When the three Russians rounded that very corner, the Tigrons of Kireyeva and Valkyria launched another, very similar attack, sideshifting to either side of her, slipping alongside, and...

"Maneuver 7."

CRUNCH

Instead of overtaking her, they both sideshifted into her. With Kireyeva still ahead of Valkyria, they ended up skewing the Crinale craft at an angle. That only got worse when she applied her airbrakes, forcing the craft to spin around. As she cleared the incapacitated Crinale, she shifted back into formation with Valkyria, speeding past once again.

The thrust system of Alexandra's ship caused it to spin right around to face the right way very quickly. As she rushed to retake the positions she lost, she picked up weapon after weapon, absorbing all of them except for the odd turbo or two.

"Come on, damn f*ck you! Give me that!"

The double upward chevrons that displayed next was not what she was specifically after, but it was something that would assist her with great efficiency.

"Quake."

However, the Tigron were nowhere in sight after that. They were still as far ahead as they had been, if not slightly further. Despite the similarities in handling officially, the team leader was certain that she could catch up to them, even with the end of the first section nearing rapidly, the technical second section to follow.

"Lucia, pass Angelus, now!"

The younger Italian was bewildered. She wanted to win even more desperately than before. What exactly did that purple-haired woman have on her?

"You think I haven't been trying to get past this whole time!? He's been stealing every weapon from me!"

"...A-"

"No, listen, it's only the first goddamn lap! There's 60 in total, so could you just back off for one second? Please, let's think about this strategically."

"But--"

"Oh! Yes! Never mind, forget what I said, I got it."

"Energy Blaster."

"Ha haaa! Got it indeed."

"...If I could speak now, I was going to let you do your thing, I just wanted to make sure you were on it."

"Oh yeah, because I want to finish behind Angelus. Now get back up here, this race obviously has a great meaning to you, so you have 59 laps to get right back up here and fulfil that meaning!"

------------

<14:40:29_>
<altima viii: long course_>
<race: lap 26 of 60_>

01.	SCA308.0. 7.329	# 7	Lucia Scarlatti	Crinale	F0-RG08/01792
02.	KIR311.0.67.297	#67	Natalia Kireyeva	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4	+0.612
03.	VAL027.1.66.297	#66	"Valkyria"	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4	+0.691
04.	ARD889.0.19.194	#19	Gareth Ardos	Angelus	AX2.2_r9	+1.993
05.	GEL255.2.13.329	#13	Alexandra Gelorum	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536	+5.460
...
08.	WHI353.0.12.894	#12	"Lady White"	Qirex	LS12 v2.8	+16.839
09.	SIN959.0.10.576	#10	Sino	EG.X	EG.FF-201 III	+18.204
...

<pull me under | dimension_>

The top 5 didn't realise that there was one certain threat that was gradually climbing up the ranks. Of course, the one who could stop the yellow, crimson and blue craft didn't notice the long game had been played until it was too late.

"Swarm Drain."

The Super-Weapon, as expected of a merger of the two former teams, functioned like a combination of EG.r's Power Swarm, with the leeching capabilities of Xios' Shield Drain. The multiple miniature drones shot out from the trailing craft, and immediately surrounded the other, leeching portions of the uniquely white Qirex at a time. With 6 drones, each leeching a total of 12 gravity shield units apiece, meant that 72gsu was leeched from the craft. Her craft was not at full health, which meant that she was in the critical range.

"Agh! No!"

Firmly applying the airbrakes, she let the craft soar past her, narrowly missing her. It was then that she unleashed her own Super-Weapon, based on Qirex's older F5000 one.

"Power Wall."

Unlike the old one, the craft merely slowed down upon hitting it, passing through it. It still shaved vast amounts of energy from the shields of the craft that passed through it, however. Which was exactly what Sino did, perfectly taking the racing line into the wall.

Coming up alongside the Finnish-designed craft, Lady White started regaining her lost shield energy, absorbing every weapon she received as she entered the final section, flying into the tunnel to start her 27th lap. Directly ahead of the two was another craft. They were the nearing 7th place craft of Piranha.

"Cannon."

The high-speed bullets relentlessly pummelled the red and yellow craft, causing it to decelerate just enough for both warring craft to scream past.

"Bomb."

And the large explosion and disruption ensured that very same craft wouldn't be stealing the positions back right in a hurry.

Further up the pack, Gelorum was absolutely relentless. She had closed the some 3 second gap in the space of one and a half laps, thanks to no help from Tigron, who were even more adamant to push her back down the ranks. It had gotten to the point where the woman's eyes had begun to glow.

"Gareth... out of my way..."

"Plasma."

Quick nerves from Angelus' Zone master had instinctively made the craft sideshift over to outside of the racing line... only to get hit by the very thing he was intending to avoid.

"Ngh!"

Gelorum had pulled her tricks again. Shifting over to the opposite side, she begun to charge the powerful energy sphere. At the very last, but opportune moment, she opened the left airbrake, again skewing the craft to face where Gareth would most likely shift to, as the plasma shot from her craft along it's trajectory, which Gareth, as Gelorum predicted, shifted right into.

"Hmhm..." She chuckled lightly, pulling the other airbrake to straighten herself out. As she did, the black craft naturally passed the white and azure Angelus.

"Right, now Tigron."

Several hundred meters ahead, the two craft came into view, still in their perfect formation. They were nearing the other Crinale of Lucia at a gradual pace.

"Bomb."
"Missile."

They weren't about to be fooled twice, they had both sideshifted out of the way before the bomb was deployed. The missile, however, was fired blind, something the two Russians were not aware of, until the projectile bounced off the opposite wall and into the leading craft.

Back at the control room, a bewildered Brandon just stared in confusion.

"This... how'd she get better than 2209?"

As the craft was shoved into the wall from the direct hit, both Valkyria and Gelorum soared past her.

"Hyah!"

Of course, Natalia was not going down without a fight, and shifted to the left, in an attempt to force the other Russian woman into the wall. She had succeeded in getting a hit, but it was a more awkward one to the rear of the Crinale craft. Instead of the massive wall shunt she was hoping for, all that came from the maneuver was skewing the craft towards the centre of the corner, which the leader simply counter-acted with a drift through the corner.

The idea of counter-steering to drift around the corner was one thing. The execution was by far and away another. It took all of her strength to twist the steering handles all the way to the left to fight the rightward rotation the craft was following. When that failed, she twisted one upwards, opening the opposite airbrake to the corner, which was barely enough to force the heavy, yet aerodynamic craft to cease the rotational slide, and fall back into line. All that was left to do was to straighten out, which she did with a big sigh, followed by a very pleased laugh that she pulled off such a feat.

"Hahahaha! Valkyria! You are next!"

<loop | voicians_>

Alex wasn't the only one that was well-versed in advanced weapon strategies. At the leader's insistence, Lucia had been taught how to properly manage her weapon usage, which expanded the girl's strategic prowess. Admittedly, that was the only reason the prodigy accepted the training in the first place.

"Mines."

Immediately following a sharp, blind corner, Lucia immediately put that into practice. From one end of the narrow course, she started to deploy the mines. At the same time as the first mine leaving her craft, she shifted to the other side, the other 4 mines perfectly covering the track, and ensuring that Valkyria would run into at least one of them.

Leon's engineer spoke to Alex through the radio. "Keep to the left. M-"

"Mines."

Alex was already starting to take the corner after the engineer and her computer's warning, and had seen the first of them right before straightening out. When she didn't see a second, she aimed for an exit that went right beside it. She soared right past the first, seeing the other three in a diagonal line across the track, with her trajectory correctly going through the gap created by the Tigron slamming into the second mine deployed by the true lead pilot of Crinale.

In addition, flying over the crest that crossed above the prior piece of track below, she saw the Tigron of Valkyria attempting to regain speed. Just as she started to pass it, the pilot achieved what Natalia failed to do just before.

CRUNCH.

The black craft slammed into the other, pressing it against the wall. Just as they arrived at the corner, the K-Bystrota shifted the other way, spinning around the corner, yet leaving Alex to force her heavy craft to do the same, from a more awkward position and angle.

"02!" She yelled out after regaining her composure and rhythm.

The one she was referring to, CO-02, replied.

"I know what you're about to ask me, and my answer is the same as it always has been. We don't know how their shielding works. We're starting to get some ideas and possibilities, but it's only conjecture at this point."

"Damn. Okay, never mind. Unlike others, I'm not afraid to eliminate them."

"Make it a 1-2 finish, you owe at least that much to us after taking Leon's spot." She commented.

"Bhah!" Alex chortled. "Like I would ever let you down!"

The matter was, of course, trying to close the distance between them once more. While the Tigron did have a higher top-end speed, they were on the exclusive, technical part of the long course, and both Tigron and Crinale had very similar performance in thrust and handling, which meant that they took corners at similar speeds, and accelerated out of them much the same as well.

But what about a weapon that travels faster than both? And one that would almost guarantee to slow the leading craft down? Wouldn't that play perfectly into Alexandra's hands?

"Quake."

Sure, it might have placed Valkyria into dangerously low shield energy and was not a complete elimination, but it was more than enough for Alex to steal the position from the craft with the wonky shields.

"Gh! H-Hey! What happened to warning me about those quakes!?"

...and, unfortunately, also hit Lucia.

"Sh*t, sorry, I forgot. I was in my own groove there."

"Well, whatever, it's not like I was going to b--"

"Lucia. Enough. Let's get this done."

"'Kay!"

Passing the gradually accelerating Crinale was fairly simple for Alex, Lucia graciously accepting 2nd place on lap 31.

<contender eliminated_>

That elimination so happened to be the 6th place craft of FEISAR. The secondary battle was about to come to a head.

------------

<15:16:48_>
<altima viii: long course_>
<race: lap 55 of 60_>

01.	GEL255.2.13.329	#13	Alexandra Gelorum	Crinale	F0-RG08/01536
02.	SCA308.0. 7.329	# 7	Lucia Scarlatti	Crinale	F0-RG08/01792	+0.118
03.	SIN959.0.10.576	#10	Sino	EG.X	EG.FF-201 III	+0.345
04.	KIR311.0.67.297	#67	Natalia Kireyeva	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4	+1.492
05.	VAL027.1.66.297	#66	"Valkyria"	Tigron	K-Bystrota v1.4	+1.576
06.	ARD889.0.19.194	#19	Gareth Ardos	Angelus	AX2.2_r9	+3.111
07.	WHI353.0.12.894	#12	"Lady White"	Qirex	LS12 v2.8	+5.507
...

Somehow, the lone EG-X craft forced its way past the pack, taking advantage of the relatively high thrust and cornering ability, masterfully dodging all weapons thrown at the craft.

Naturally, the instant the 6th placed FEISAR was eliminated, CO-02 immediately noticed the approaching EG-X and Qirex, and overrode the existing strategy to implement an altered variation in place. Even though the EG-X was the only one that even got past the 5th placed Angelus, their new strategy still held on.

It was expected that they would have seen the Finnish/Chinese craft by lap 56, but after a quake by Natalia, and a turbo by Sino himself, that prediction was out by a full lap, the maroon, yellow and blue craft entering their field of view very shortly after the 55th lap.

Sino kept up quite well to the two Crinales, yet didn't gain on them. The bulk gain of the EG-X was its tighter, faster cornering speed, so only when the three of them entered the second section, was the point that Sino started lowering the gap between them. The final corner and straight made it seem like it was the final lap, when there was still 4 full laps to go.

"Rockets."

A direct hit on both of them, the EG-X flew past Lucia and Alex.

"Energy Blaster."
<contender eliminated_>

And just like that, Lucia's second obtainment of the superweapon once again threw the standings in favour of Crinale. Four laps later, the two identical black craft crossed the finish line, a 1-2 finish for Crinale, and the first race win for Alex Kotova herself since 2209.

The referenced album title of Part 54.2 was American Dream by LCD Soundsystem.

[FTA|s3_15.0: Part 55.0] The Tempest

---

Momiji Line, Nikko, Tochigi, Japan.

"Everyone has the ability to race beyond what anyone expects. Even those who, at first glance, do not look like the type to be active participants in the racing scene. Perhaps, one may be interested in the scene, maybe even spectate a few events, but no-one would be the wiser that they actively race..."

------------
Day 24.

21:57:45

At the start of Momiji Pass, a small high-school student waited eagerly beside an equally small car. Hayate Nakajima was sitting by a Yamutsu Tempest GTA that was owned by Archangel's next opponent. Around the medium-haired racer were the very same friends from high school who helped tune the Tempest with help from Hayate's father.

"So when's he gonna be here?" One of the few females of the group asked.

"I dunno..." Hayate replied. "Could be as late as 10 itself. He seemed to be there about that time when he was battling Kotonami. At least he's giving me time to make my last preparations."

Crawling into the back seat of the 2-door compact, Hayate picked up a small object, still in it's packaging. Tearing it open, the small plush toy was attached onto the rear window of the car through its suction cup, letting it dangle from the new position.

"Hakurou Tengu, please protect me." Was what was murmured from the lips of the small teenager.

Tengu are forms of Youkai, Japanese mythological beasts. Specifically, the Hakurou Tengu, or White Wolf Tengu, acts as the mountain's defence force. The plush toy secured to Hayate's car was a cutesy, stylised version, looking more like a girl with very few minor wolf-like attributes, than some version of a supernatural spirit.

After staring at the toy dangling for several seconds, one of Hayate's friends piped up.

"He's here! Hayate, Archangel's here!"

In the distance, the sleek black car of the gradually more famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) racer that was Archangel. There was just enough time for the teenager to crawl back out of the car, before the sound of the tuned engine that was the powerplant of Archangel's car resounded throughout the pass, from just a couple meters away from the helmeted racer's opponent. Upon seeing Hayate, however, Archangel was struck with a bout of confusion, all stemming from the androgynous appearance of his opponent.

'...wait... Are they... male? Female? I'd... better tread lightly here.'

"U-Um... You're Archangel, right?"

Before the man could start introducing himself, Hayate spoke up, somewhat breaking the ice.

"That's correct. Hayate Nakajima... I presume?"

"Y-Yeah, that's right."

He smiled under his helmet.

"Interesting. You know, I initially thought it was your father that was the fastest down here. And had I been any ordinary person, I would have assumed that until right this moment."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Hayate looked confused.

"It's fine, you don't have to understand. All you should know is that I am more than just a simple touge racer, yet it is a somewhat favourite pastime. Now, what do you say, shall we start?"

"I..."

Hayate wasn't sure what to think, but at the very least, this Archangel guy did seem to be someone who would be fun to race against.

"Sure! Let's go!"

In an instant, Rei had his car turned around, and Hayate was properly lined up ready for the off.

'Okay... the car is better than before... I can do this. I can win, I know I can!...'

"...what!?"

------------

"Slight change in the strategy for this one, hopefully I can pull it off. Don't you dare let me down, Hayate."

Checking the car's diagnostics, everything seemed to be fine. Looking up for the signal, however, he saw something quite unexpected.

"...Ryouta... Nakajima? That kid's father?"

Standing in front of the two cars was Hayate's father, Ryouta. Raising his hand up, he began to yell out the countdown to start.

"5! 4, 3, 2, 1! ...GO!"

Driver 'Archangel' Team N/A Car Unknown Year Unknown, possibly 2200s Type Sports, 2-door Layout M4 Plate ·4 07, classification 390 Colour Black Engine Unknown modified engine Power 275PS Weight Unknown Custom Parts "Archangel" Body Kit, Unknown engine modification, Azure Blue Laser headlights, Unknown other systems.

vs.

中島疾風 (Nakajima Hayate) N/A Yamutsu Tempest GTA (ES53) 2193 Sports Compact, 2-door FR 12-18, classification 576 High Future Two Tone Modified 1.6L I4 NA YN6PB 181PS 848kg OEM Optional Spoiler, Aftermarket Steering Wheel, 8-point roll bar.

<kaede -ver.2.0 | clean tears_>

The instant the two cars leapt off the line, Rei immediately noticed a massive problem. The tiny car seemed to be accelerating far quicker than anticipated.

"What? That... that just throws my strategy out of whack! How much higher is that car's power now!? It can't be by much, but it might be enough. This is critical to my strategy succeeding. I'm just gonna have to push harder and hope for the best."

And push he did, just edging out Hayate before the first corner. The instant his entire car was in front of the GTA, he quickly swerved in front of it, then immediately turned sharply to the left, using the momentum in the initial right swerve to put the back out. It was a smooth, skilful Scandinavian Flick.

The first left hand corner led directly into a not-so-sharp right hand corner, into another straight. Not even into that second corner, and Rei had already begun to pull away slowly from the smaller compact. Along the straight, Rei kept pulling, until the third corner they took showed a very noticeable desync in their movements: While Rei was turning through the corner and accelerating out, Hayate was just slowing down to turn in.

'Excellent', He thought. 'The strategy still works perfectly, I guess I put too much power into this initially.'

The first section was still, however, a mid to high-speed section. Despite two hairpins and a sharp corner, the rest of the corners were sparse and fast, blurring the line between corner and straight.

Interestingly, after the first of the hairpins, the gap between Rei and Hayate stopped widening. It wasn't that Rei had taken pity on the small racer, the cyan and grey Tempest GTA was just starting to match the speeds of the sleek, black car being driven by Archangel. The true talent of Hayate Nakajima was about to be revealed.

The gentle curves up to the second hairpin noted the second interesting point of that night: The smaller, older of the two cars started to, in a very odd sense, gain on the car that had soundly defeated two others before it. It wasn't by a very large amount, only the very slightest and briefest of gains.

The black car that started to symbolise Archangel started to pull away from Hayate, just before the sweeping left-hand corner, leading into the brief straight before the second hairpin. There, Archangel's notable cornering style came back into focus. As the car slowed down, he turned sharply into the hairpin to push the back out, then immediately adjusted his throttle and steering so the minimal amount of steering into the corner was needed to have the car gracefully glide through and out of the corner, at a minimal angle and as fast as was technically possible.

The lighter Tempest, however, seemed to just glide around the hairpin at pretty much the same speed as Archangel. The engine note only slowly decreased in pitch as the corner before the hairpin was taken, but Hayate did have to brake for the much tighter hairpin. The racing style was rather unique, not seen by anyone before. The car turned in at a far greater speed than what a normal, or even lightly tuned ES53 like Hayate's could manage.

The resulting initial understeer was mitigated by the right foot of Hayate, the accelerator being planted to send maximum power through into the rear stabilisers, pushing them beyond their grip capacity and sending the rear sliding outward. From there, all Hayate did was keep the slide held, and the speed up. When the car straightened out exiting the corner, it was still moving at a great amount of speed, the YN6PB inline-4 working overtime to push the car faster as it accelerated out into the next immediate complex.

It was a section taken at a much higher speed than the preceding hairpin, and consisted of 5 small, very minor corners that actually blended into one another, far more so than the map would suggest. Those two points of information, along with the knowledge and experience of racing on that pass that Hayate had meant that the car was pushed to the limits, the accelerator being held even through that final series. The first sector ended in a moderately sharp chicane, which, through minimal braking, was navigated with ease by the high-schooler.

"And now... hell."

To both Hayate and Archangel, that wouldn't be too much of a stretch, calling the second section 'hell'. It was full of consecutive, slow, sharp corners that could make or break one's run. To make the most out of it, careful, precise control of the car was required, along with ultra-fast reflexes. This was where the immense lack of weight would place the favour into Hayate's hands, adding onto the experience.

The second section started with a simple left curve, then a double-apex right hand corner, disguised as two separate right corners. That, however, was all the warning they would get. Immediately after the 'second' right, the true "hell" of the second section began. Needing to slow right down in such a short space was almost bordering on impossible, and Hayate had to drift widely into the hairpin in order to keep bringing the speeds down to clear the tight corner. From there, it was a matter of keeping the speed up as the hairpins came thick and fast, without any time to recover.

The instant the black car was exiting one corner, it was already turning the other way to lead into the next, the speed holding somewhat steady near, but not particularly reaching, 100km/h. It was only through the 3rd consecutive corner that the speed barely increased to 104. A fourth hairpin loomed beyond a small straight, providing a small reprieve before throwing them into two more consecutive hairpins. That allowed the speeds to creep up significantly, 119km/h being clocked by the black car.

Within the lightweight Tempest, the hairpins were taken at slightly faster speeds. The shorter length also meant that the car could change direction much quicker than Archangel. 103km/h was the speed Hayate had slowed to through the first hairpin, turning quickly into the second and third at a constant 106. Despite the apparent ease, Hayate was physically wrestling with the car in order to keep the speed up. In a usual time attack run, Hayate's speed through the second section was closer to that of Archangel's. The consistency was kept up through the final two corners, as once again, Hayate physically forced the wheel to snap to the other direction a slight moment before the Tempest was even out of the corner.

"Ngh... Hah! ...y-yes! 128!"

While the sector wasn't over, most of the difficulty that comprised it was complete. There were still a few tricks up its sleeve, but it was not as hard as the initial hairpin complex. A slight chicane bridged the gap between the fifth hairpin of that section to a right-angle bend, leading into a standalone, less sharp sixth hairpin.

A small right followed, before a gradually tightening chicane series pitted them to their reflexes and vehicular agility once more.

"...hmm..."

Archangel noticed that the headlights behind him were gaining on him.

"Time to push."

And push he did, somehow finding enough angular speed to match the speed of the nearing Tempest, the newer technology of the 2200s car keeping the speeds up and holding off the 2193 ES53 behind him.

The third sector began right after a right-angle corner. Through a gentle curve, three more hairpins awaited them. However, they were not as sharp as the sector 2 complex, and gave, albeit very minimal, almost non-existent, some kind of breathing room between them.

That was it, after that was a simple left high-speed corner, the track just straightening out even more after that. The road still curved along the mountain, but the road ahead of them was more like a straight than anything, the lines between a straight and a corner blurred to the absolute extreme. Both Archangel and Hayate could plant their feet to the floor, allowing their cars to accelerate and gain speed down the section. This was where the black sports car of Archangel could shine, its higher power output able to provide greater speed and acceleration than the still tuned Tempest GTA.

What looked like another hairpin was just a minor kink that led to a long corner that could be taken at max speed. Through the second half of the corner, both racers flew past a small carpark, where some fans had taken as a great opportunity to watch the race. It was all over for them, however. They were able to hear the sounds of the warring cars several seconds back, but as soon as they screamed into view, they were already around the corner, and into the next. Sure, it was one of only few vantage points one could watch the race, but it was all for a mere second of action.

Yet another chicane series followed, but it was more of a gentle right curve than the former.

"...this... this is it... we're almost at the end. It's now or never, I think I know how to win!"

Using as much of the road as possible, and pressing down as hard as was physically possible on the right pedal, Hayate's style switched, the focus was now on getting past no matter what. The younger opponent to Archangel knew that this race was the fastest ever, a new, probably unbeatable record was being set by the Tempest GTA already, but that wasn't what Hayate had come all this way for. Not for some new record, but a full race win.

Two tight hairpins closed off the course, separated by a long straight between them. The straight was one of the longer ones in the course, but like the others, they weren't that straight, blurring the line between proper straights and corners.

135km/h was the speed the first hairpin was taken by Archangel.

146km/h was the velocity Hayate navigated it, the start of the final chance to take Archangel signified by it.

From behind a certain black sports car, another one was somehow accelerating faster than it.

And then, the move was made.

<let it shine | yuko koshiro_>

The first noticeable thing was the odd shift in the lights that illuminated through the leading car's interior. The cyan car's driver had started to make their final move. The third final corner of the course. Hayate Nakajima's Yamutsu Tempest GTA had started to overtake Archangel's own, unknown car.

The crowd situated just after the corner would be waiting the longest second in their entire lives, waiting to see who would emerge from that corner in front of whom.

Out of nowhere, at blistering speed, their questions were answered.

Archangel had maintained his lead.

------------
Halfway through the corner, Archangel smiled.

"Strategy success. Time's up."

A simple movement was all that was needed. A simple push of his foot, harder onto the pedal of the car, finally removing the mental limiter. Archangel unleashed all 275hp of his car, slingshotting away from the threatening Tempest.

"No! No, no! What!?"

Hayate was, of course, distraught that such a strategic move would be played out like that, especially with how well he was racing. But the small high-schooler kept the pedal pressed to the floor, not giving in for one moment. At the final hairpin, however, that black car disappeared completely from view. Racing around it at top speed, Hayate saw it once again, way too far to be caught up to.

Crossing the line and slowing down up to where everyone else was, Hayate saw one thing that was not there at the end of every Archangel battle.

The black car of Rei Kurokawa, with the man standing right beside it.

When Hayate stopped, Rei walked over to the driver's side of the Tempest. When the window came down, and the racer looked up at him, Rei spoke.

"Do you have a moment?"

------------

In a parking lot closer to the Nakajima home, two people met to converse.

The first was a small Hayate Nakajima.

The other, practically towering the first, was Rei Kurokawa.

"I just wanted to make sure that the final part of that race didn't get you down." The latter spoke.

"What do you mean? You just wiped the floor with me, how am I supposed to feel other than upset?"

He shook his head.

"That's looking at the race as nothing more as the sum of the end result. Others may see it like that because they have no other choice. What matters to you is what you take from it. You were the one that raced against me, after all."

"That... um... h-huh?"

"Heh, it's simple, really."

He pulled out a stopwatch.

"I was timing you. I went into this race like no other race I've been in." Suddenly, he became serious. "Tell no-one what I am about to tell you."

Hayate nervously nodded.

"I gather data on everyone before a race. Now, I could tell that there was something special with you. You have some innate talent, whether you're aware of it or not."

Hayate just looked up at the man silently, taking in every word he spoke.

"With this race, I tried to bring that talent out of you, and push it as far as I could. And push I did, you raced your fastest out there, that time is your own personal best."

"But... what about that end, then? Did you slow down?"

"I never slow down. You were just that fast. See, I limited myself so I could gradually pull you along, to make you faster, and it worked... a little too well. When I pulled away from you at the end, that was me removing that 'limiter', and pushing as hard as I could to the end. Again, though, that's not what you should take from it. You're a very talented kid."

Hayate could not help but smile from that. The high-schooler loved to race, and to hear that from someone like Archangel, was almost as good a praise as getting one from, say, Katsuo Tsukiko or 'Banzai' Sato!

"Thank you, thanks so much!"

Rei nodded in acknowledgement.

"It's not common that I like to speak to someone about this. Just... I like to appreciate talent when I see it."

As he turned to leave, he waved at his former opponent.

"See you. We may meet again sometime, Hayate."

"I hope we do, Archangel! I'll still follow your racing!"

The referenced song title of Part 55 was The Tempest by Pendulum.

[FTA|s3_16.0: Part 56.0] Approaching the Darkness

---

<22150410>

Monday, April 10th, 2215

São Paulo, Brazil.

The city of São Paulo was abuzz, the seventeen teams that comprised the competitors of the F12000 were about to arrive in the populous city for the next leg of the championship. The planning and strategy for that race, like all others, was still being worked on, even possible contingency plans in case something caused that initial strategy to no longer become viable.

"...medium reverse. The fastest of the circuit's courses. Some say unfairly biased, towards the more powerful craft. That middle bit there, with the double hairpin, that's where I'd disagree. There are faster courses than this one. Omega Harbour comes to mind."

------------

"This course does favour the more powerful craft. Take this to your advantage. The corners can be taken at a higher speed than the layout suggests. We have a three-way tie for the fastest team on the grid. Yet, no-one else can match our handling. Your move, Icaras."

"And Jennter?"

"Their handling is comparable to when our craft was much heavier. Just with 50% less shield. I'd be surprised if they get through one lap, let alone 66."

------------

"Total domination is what we have strived for. A few races have resulted in eliminations, but victory will be attained here. Speed is everything. So, the true limits of the hive-type unit will be made known here!"

"So we crank systems to max?"

"Not necessarily. There is still risk of complete system failure if maximum power is applied. We still have vast top-end speed, we can apply slight more power, but not 100%."

------------

"We expect to qualify around the midfield. Our engines are not as powerful as several other teams, so we need to make the time up elsewhere. I do, however, believe you know where exactly in the course the time is to be made up: In the corners. I think, except for the double hairpin, we should be able to navigate every corner without losing even a single kilometre per hour."

------------

With the initial briefs over, the actual analyses and strategies began to form...

"Keep your speed up, take the hairpins as wide as you can go to maintain your speed. Watch out especially for corners 4 and 6, they're a lot more subtle about their relative sharpness than you'd think. Apart from that, this is a super easy circuit, the hard part is just maintaining maximum speed."

"So what about the race?"

"Simple enough. Focus your attacks on the more vulnerable places. So, before or within corners 4 and 6, and the 12-13-14 double hairpin. You should try to defend as much as you can elsewhere, and always remember to keep your speed up. There's a reason why the Brazilian Piranha love this course, aside from it being their home course."

"Yet they still have the double hairpin as their weakness."

"Used to. I've noticed a... well, I guess a right word would be anomalous, increase in their cornering speed over the course of the season so far."

"...Like Jennter?"

"Sort of, I don't think they're using a similar system, though. They've not even been investigated, let alone banned. Either way, it's evidently not illegal, so how they achieved it is not important. What's important is just how they perform right here, right now. Everyone else, too. All we have to go off for now is their performance from Altima VIII. With that said though, these are two completely different tracks. This one is more about all out speed, yet Altima is very twisty and technical, so extracting their performance data and applying it here is a little difficult."

"So, have you done it?"

"Of course. I've had two weeks to get it done. Immediately after the race, I gathered all I could by way of all the teams' performance data, and started to apply it to this very course. It's naturally not 100%, but it's close enough that I have a very good idea of how it'll play out."

"Okay."

"Piranha and Tigron are right up the top. Piranha is at the very top if we're going strictly by Altima's data, but I'm still wary of Tigron's hive-type system. We're next ahead of Jennter, because their new airbrakes are crap, the extra speed they have just doesn't cut it. Crinale are right in the middle of the bottom half, so I don't think they'll be that big a threat."

"But, weapons."

"Precisely. But that's for the race, Qualifying's first..."

------------

"The end is now. Win or lose, Erebus shall provide the most exciting race the entire world has ever seen. So, shall we begin?"

------------
Unknown Date.

Unknown Location.

Unknown Time.

>>EREBUS OS V3.7.564

>>LOADING DATA FILES...

>COMPLETE

>>LOGGING IN...
>>WELCOME, EREBUS.

>>DOWNLOADING UPDATED AVAILABLE TEAM DATA...

>COMPLETE

>>PROJECT: SHINIGAMI PROGRESS:

>"SG_R-000": INACTIVE

>"SG_X-043": COMPLETE

>>INITIATING ACTIVATION PROCESS ["SG_X-043"].

>SHINIGAMI AXC ACTIVATED.
>DEPLOYMENT: SEFAIALON

[FTA|s0_00.0: Part 00.0] Coping^TM

---

<20191026>

Saturday, October 26th, 2019

A Certain Home in Perth, Australia.

As he booted up his computer, he heard an odd noise, but ultimately thought nothing of it. After all, the computer seemed to have booted up just fine.

He should have.

As soon as he logged in, he could see one sign that maybe he had not plugged everything in correctly... but it was. He tried unplugging, and plugging it back in... nothing. Opening the file explorer to look for it... again, nothing.

It had died on him, and took away something he had been working on for 4 years...

<do you | freeland_>

---

...I hate to do this to you all... but I have no choice. It's been a while, so I thought I should let you all know what has happened while I get my ass into gear and fix this problem I have on my hands. Unfortunately, I'm forced to put FTA on yet another hiatus, hopefully one that won't last too long. It's not that I've run out of parts to post, or that I've gotten another writer's block, no. Something far worse has happened.

...the hard drive containing everything related to FTA has failed.

I have more reasons than this fanfic that has been a part of my life these past 5 years. Half my music library, all of my videos, my pictures, some games, and even some other documents that have nothing to do with FTA was stored on there. Some few hundred gigs short of it's 2TB capacity. Now, this could be some blessing that, oh, I was slowly running out of space, maybe I should upgrade. And yeah, maybe. But this is not a good thing. Having a new 4TB drive is meaningless to me, if I don't have everything that was on that old drive.

So, how to fix it? Well, through process of elimination, I've found the answer: It's a mechanical failure. I have but one option left: I physically transport my physically broken drive to some people who will perform a data recovery service. Now, guaranteed, this isn't completely 100% guaranteed I'll be able to get everything back. But with how much stuff I've accumulated over the years on that drive, especially my music, and FTA, I will go down that path and try and get my stuff back. All that needs to happen is for me to get my ass in gear and contact them to get things rolling.

Now, I could just keep writing and posting from where I left off, except I'd rather not. See, it wasn't just the fic itself that was on that drive. Supplementary material and even two large planning sheets for each arc of Season 3 was there too. Without that, I couldn't possibly hope to continue and make it as amazing as I could with that sheet. Sure, I can memorise key plot elements, but not everything I had planned out.

Hopefully, after this, I will be posting FTA stuff again soon. If not, then the next thing I post here will be an apology, and a summation of the plot points of the rest of Season 3. But damn it, that's the last thing I want to do, it will only be out of necessity of an irrecoverable hard drive that I will be forced to succumb to that.

Once again, apologies, and thank you. Each and every one of you that has read, or even skimmed through the thread, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Here's hoping I can continue to write and post full Season 3 parts, until the very end.

---

Oh, and the title of that? Another album title. Cope^TM, by Adam Freeland.

Arc: NJRS - #007
Title: Mondays

Jennter Enterprises HQ, Düsseldorf, Germany
Monday, 26th February 2215
9:31.23

Nico entered the main production hall in a hasty manner, searching for the Lead Production Engineer of the Anti-Gravity Racing Division.
"Hey! Why is everything quiet here?" Nico called over to the man he searched while approaching him.
Gustav Darrendorf, a senior employee of the company who gave an almost stereotypical impression of an engineer, wearing a lab coat and safety helmet, took this rather dry "Chain of orders was to begin production of the revised parts for the new craft. But we got no data."
"No data?" as Nico asked that several worries piled up in him "How do you mean?"
Gustav shrugged "The Technical Director, who has been in charge of sending over the final revision, seems to have missed this deadline."
Nico nodded nervously "I'll check this."

Bovier ran through the floors. The production halls were mostly at ground level in the north section of the headquarters, close to the hangar. His destination however, Linda's officie, has been in the thrid floor of the main section. 10 minutes to walk, three to run.
Maybe four, if he didn't have various close calls on his way.

9:38.18

Nico rushed into Linda's office without any further warning. All he got to see was her wearing a VR headset, sitting on her chair in the middle of the room.
She whispered various notes to herself to be recorded "Reduce diametre to 27 millimetres, H7, no H6. Reduce extrusion by 5 milimetres, part used to collide with alternating load."
Her faint voice and noteably greasy hair indicated that she has been working on this project through the whole weekend.
"Linda?" Nico tried to make contact with her to no response.

He tapped on her shoulder, to which she twitched and spoke slightly more audible "Intruder, get out. Calibration is compromised."
Following that she tiredly moaned for over ten seconds and briefly after that seemed to tipped over, off her chair. However, she managed to catch her momentum.
For Nico it has been enough, he stripped the headset off her "What do you think are you doing?"

Linda glared at him, but zoned out. A focus uninterrupted for three days and the same amount of fatigue made her collapse. Nico caught her before she would fall head-first out of the chair "Hey! Linda, are you okay?"
She passed out.


Linda was transferred to the medical office of the company. Nico stayed for a while to make sure she was secure. After that he left and made a call to his personnel office "I checked her project documentation, Linda is trying to do everything on her own. What were you thinking by giving her this position?"
He spent the next five minutes fending off arguments, but noticed that it was pointless at the moment anyway. Nico simply hung up and marched to the main development office next.

10:15.46

"Lerod! Where are you?" Nico yelled through the office, impatient from a way too busy Monday morning.
He noticed a noise from a separate office "Moment!"
Nico walked towards the origin of the noise, as Kevin Lerod appeared in front of him "Oh, Mister Bovier!"
"How's it going?" Nico casually asked and looked around the rather silent office "Nothing, I see?"
"We hardly had any work, as that girl took everything on her shoulders." Lerod explained.

Nico turned away to surpress an expression of his frustration, then faced his employee again "And you thought this was fine to keep up?"
Before he could hear an answer, Nico turned away to look into an opposing office. A single person was sitting on their workstation and hammered into a keyboard.
"May I help you?" they asked, soft and quiet, while not averting their gaze from the monitor.
"What are you working on?" Nico simply asked. His voice shifted to curiousity, but his distress was still existent in it.
"Editting the data of Miss Greyson." they explained "I talked with her last Friday and am not surprised to sit here now."
Nico approached this person closer "A bet? With Linda?"

They simply nodded.

"Would you be ready to talk about a new position?"

Faster Than Angels
Jennterista Racing Chronicles
Operation: Final Overture

The FTA project really grew in the amount of narration and ideas it amassed over time. Frankly I wasn't able to maintain my older works to keep a level of writing that was appropriate by now, furthermore a lot of holes showed up.
I decided to cancel all my other writing projects, to solely focus on my first one, to honour the past and present. To move into the future with a feeling of accomplishment (not saying I would stop writing FTA soon).
All older parts will be revised in order to connect all ideas I developed over this time in one refined, flowing continuity.
Here is a list of parts that passed revision. I will mention the state of things after every new entry to NJRS.

Thank you for your hard work and enjoyed it.

Stevie 😊

Arc: NJRS - #008
Title: Phase Shift

11:05.21

"A new position?" she asked, finally averting her gaze from the monitor.
"Vice Technical Director." Nico explained "You would mainly assists Miss Greyson in leading the R&D ressort of Jennter."
She sighed and looked back at her work "I don't know if I would be qualified for such a position."
Nico turned away, looking to the floor "Right, it would be too much a risk perhaps..."
"I'll do it!" the woman stood up while raising her voice. Nico was surprised at how short she was.

Nico looked back at her and smiled "Then, congratulations, Miss uhh..."
"Arkana Terrenzia." she introduced herself "I just recently transferred from the Mars division of Jennter Enterprises.
"Good, Miss Terrenzia." Nico continued "Let's find you an office."
She nodded and silently followed him as Nico lead the way.
"As for Linda, she is currently in the medical office and should take some days off." he said to Arkana while moving through the floors.
"Oh." Arkana merely sighed, thinking about the situation given her previous interaction with Linda.
"She really overworked herself. It is a bit tough to imagine that she really sat on it alone for three days." his voice filled with a sense of worry and anger.
"It is not so surprising." she threw in "Linda, uhh... Miss Greyson is a prodigy on the field of engineering. But she isn't accustomed to real engineering work."
Nico shock his head "I really don't know who thought it was a great idea to put her into this position already."
"Yet here you are, dragging me along..." the woman uttered.
"What?" Nico was about to pick that remark up, but couldn't believe his eyes this moment.

Linda stood there, about to enter her office.
"Go home, Linda!" Nico yelled over at her.
She appeared worn, like someone who attended a festival for three days. She mustered Nico and the woman next to him.
"You..." she uttered "Are you going to replace me already...?"
Arkana stayed quiet.
"No." Nico sighed "Miss Terrenzia will be your assistant."
Linda glared at them "An assistant? Do you have nothing better to worry about, than how to humiliate me, Bovier!?"

Nico wanted to dismiss her already, but Arkana moved forward.
"Miss Greyson, you are a valuable ressorce in this team." she spoke, her voice being determined, but soft.
Linda laughed "Of course, I am. That's why I am here."
"Miss Greyson." she made another step forward "This is a team, Miss Greyson. The team needs you."
Linda's laugh became irregular "Naturally they do, someone got to carry it."
"But, Miss Greyson. You need a team." Arkana said, moving further towards Linda.
"I need no one." she yelled in return.

"Even the most brilliant people worked with others."
"I am-Huh-"
"It is okay, we only strife through learning."
"No, I am-"
"Linda."

Arkana stood there, embracing Linda, who fell to her knees.

---

Final Overture Update 1
As promised, I began to rework the old FTA parts of my continuity. The first 5 can be easily accessed here.
Mind that the plot of "Final Overture" is the only canonic one for my works, even if it affects NJRS!
Anyway, I am having a lot of fun with these stories nowadays, so I hope to increase my speed a bit more :D

Arc: NJRS - #009
Title: Change of Tones

Monte Carlo Nouveau, Monte Carlo, Monaco
Friday, 17th March 2215
10:34.22


"We are ready to join the track!" a technician signalled the team leadership.
"Patrick will leave first, for overall track acclimatisation. With the standard craft, this will be a tough one." Nico gave order with a wave to which the number one Jennter craft was moved out of the pit box.
"The facilities are worse than anywhere else, unbelieveable that they hold an AG race on this track in this day and age." Linda lamented, scratching her head over a piece of simulation results and setup proposals.

Said track has been a modern twist on an old Grand Prix circuit flowing through the streets of the small country at the Cote d'Azure. Once packed with pomp and glamour, it now felt like time stopped. But this began to attact an entirely different group of clientele into the city. Unlike the old track, the modern Monte Carlo Circuit floated at low altitude over the city, mimicking the grid of old European roads, just as a size practicable enough for anti-gravity racers.


"Alright, Aurora." Nico directed his attention to the second pilot of the team "Against all odds a certain pair in our team managed to complete the next evolution step of your craft."
Arkana was found with a brimming smile, which turned out to be a bit more awkward for Linda.
"Are we going to complete a race distance today?" the android asked.
"In the second session today, yes. We'll conduct the usual tests at first."

Aurora nodded and walked off towards her new JAG-F12.212/5C. Barely different from the B-type model it's internals sported several new components.
"Send craft two onto the track as soon as the pilot is ready." the team leader spoke into his headset.

Briefly later it joined the floating circuit as the same scene from the previous race repeated. A simple auxiliary AG unit carried the craft at low speeds, until it dropped the gear of the external 'AG generator ring'.
The first corner of the track has been a narrow uphill right-hand corner, which demonstrated one of the perks of this system, as the craft sharply tilted to the side and in return angled perfectly for the corner.
"It feels very drifty now, but let me get used to it, please." Aurora reported through the radio.


Jennter Enterprises HQ, Düssedorf, Germany
Saturday, 11th March 2215
20:05.52

Linda wildly drove her right hand through her hair as she navigated through ComKonWerk.
"Dammit, where is it?" she cussed at the screen while glarring at the time of day.
"Search function...plane system extrusion. No results." she uttered, followed by her first crashing onto the desk she sat on.
Arkana entered her office with no warning, knowing what situation to expect.
"This damned, outdated, unintuitive, ******, f****** piece of ****** garbage program developed by some high on sh** c***." the lead engineer kept uttering.
For a moment Arkana stood behind Linda, observing her screen. She bowed over her from behind and calmly began to take control of the program.
"Don't." Linda yelled at her "Stop."
It didn't distract her assistant "The ply strenght there is 1.394 millimetres, right?"
"No...yes." was the snappy response.
"I hope you could follow what I did." Arkana said after letting go off the control.
"Of course." Linda tossed at her "Was about to find it out myself."
"Oh really?" she questioned her superior "So I guess the ruckus was because you spilled your coffee or something, right?"
"I don't drink that garbage." Linda tried to avert.
Arkana chuckled "Hard to believe, hearing this from someone who graduated one semester earlier from the regular schedule."
"Different times." she tried to shrug it off and faced her computer again.

"Swallow your pride and just ask someone if you don't know further." as Arkana said that, she left the office.
Linda sat there for a moment until she whispered "Thank you."

Wel, I feel as if I'm not going to get my hard drive back, and with the new story I'm writing, I honestly doubt I'll return to FTA. Maybe later, after this story is done, but it's going to be a big one, like FTA. So... here it is, the final plot points of FTA that I had planned out. It's been a good run, but I can't keep you guys holding out forever.

[FTA|s3_End: Part 109.0] We Are Pilots

---

F12000 Arc, pt. 1
The Sefaialon event. 26 craft line up at the start line. One of them is odd though. The 26th craft is exactly like an Angelus, even in it's livery, except for the colour scheme and a few details. The pure white is replaced with a deep, blood red, and where there was blue, is now bone white. The angel graphic on their craft is corrupted, now sporting a tail and trident.

This is the Shinigami Project.

Almost immediately, it fires a Repulsor-like weapon, but it's so powerful, it immediately destroys all but the pole-sitting Angelus of Gareth. From there, it's a high-risk cat and mouse chase, that ends in Gareth blowing up the unit. Enraged, Brandon rushes out to denounce the victory, as it was a matter of "survival". Angelus are then henceforth suspended from the F12000. Brandon rushes out, never to be seen physically again, after a few brief visits to the HQ.

Archangel Arc

Rei would basically continue to do his thing, research into what was obviously the Overtel Corporation, while also winning street race after street race. He would gather more and more information on the Erebus Project, even meeting up with Catherine Evans to gather information. At one point, he's forced by Riku Ichinose to attend an F12000 race, and he is so abhorred by what he sees that he runs out before the race is over. Well, I say race. This was the first of many "Survival" events, the first of which happened in Sefaialon. Through being forced to drive her car, Rei promises to give her a crash course in tuning.

The racing and the information gathering continues, until one of the last four races. Rei has spoken with and left 6 of the 7 Overtel survivors to be "claimed", the final one revealed to be a man called Michael Douglas (no relation, this is 2215). The final four are the toughest opponents Rei has to face, before his final goal, the queen of touge racing. One of these four is Riku herself, driving a car that is far newer and more balanced than the one she was usually seen in. She is actually a tough opponent, but she gets dispensed eventually.

The same with the other three, the final of which happening on the Turnpike, a stretch of fast roads seen in the series before. But, the final opponent is none other than Katsuo Tsukiko of the Syncline team. But the race never happens, as the F12000 Arc merges back here.

F12000 Arc, pt. 2

After the suspension of Angelus, the team kick off their plan to find Brandon, and work with him to destroy the F12000 and Chris Scarborough. Soon, however, they find themselves up against EG.X, looking to purchase the whole damn lot of Angelus. Finally, they get through to Brandon, via phone, who gives them a plan to go through with the sale, but only a select bit of F12000-related assets. The HQ is split in two, the EG.X owned F12000 team, and the road car division. Even then, they're heavily restricted from the R&D sector. They can only use what's been committed from there before the sale.

So finally, Sino has a teammate in Gareth Ardos. He can't seem to get to grips with the neural interface that their formerly singular pilot can control, so they modify an Angelus control unit for use in the EG.X.

So the remaining loyal Angelus team now need to look into EG.X, too. Turns out, this wasn't the first time they did this, not including the original EG.r and Xios merger. For all intents and purposes, it's just the EG.r half controlling everything. The craft's primary design is stolen off a prototype FEISAR design, before they chose the current one for the FX400.

How exactly they deal with EG.X is something I've forgotten and was lost with the HDD failure, but I know that they eventually do. And, near the end, they finally find Brandon, with the help of Ramaela De Rosa. He's in Japan... right about where this Rei Kurokawa would be.

Rei Kurokawa, doesn't exist. Rei means zero, a number closely associated with Angelus. Kurokawa means Black River, a name that... would make sense later. But needless to say, the man is actually Brandon Smith. After a small war of words, Brandon drives off in a hurry, beating the track record of Irohazaka by just a very small amount, one that Katsuo could easily take back. Brandon is done. He goes back to Angelus, and they discuss the final plan, named...

Terminatum Arc

Terminatum, the final plan for Brandon with regards to the F12000. His data collection is almost complete, but they can figure out the location of the Erebus project with the help of Snezana Stoica. It's in the old ruins of the Overtel Corporation, but there's a certain way to get in. Using the two Angelus and Crinale hypercars, Alexandra obtains two Russian hyper-SUVs to carry more people, which end up being controlled by Erebus. They all leave the vehicles after shutting down the hyper-SUVs which I forgot their name, and continue to make their way into Overtel HQ.

Ascending their way to the top, they finally find Erebus. Or Chris Scarborough. Or Viktor Antonov. The vestige of the F9000, the 216cm tall android awakens. It would be here that Brandon's real surname would be revealed, through the surname of his Information Broker alias. Brandon Douglas. Michael was his father, and as it turns out, Erebus's. He created the project to completion, just before the Fall happened. It should be noted that Douglas is a historic name meaning dark water. Black river? Yeah.

As they spoke, half the team go to turn off Erebus's duplication machine, to cripple the android. With that done, Brandon tells him to turn around. Obviously Erebus is privy to such tactics, and decides to not, fearing being shot in the back. Brandon simply reveals a water gun. That, in itself, was the trick, as a modified Angelus F12000 chassis fires a 2212 EMP Railgun right into him. Now electrified, Brandon shoots the water gun at him, which exacerbates the electrification, and immolates him.

That wasn't the end of it. With Erebus burning, Brandon and the team reminisces on the events that occurred, before someone interrupts that. Michael. A battle commences! Between Michael and some kinda electric staff, and Brandon's pneumatic air gun. Brandon prevails, the staff frying itself. Now without a weapon, Michael flees, before being taken down by one of that half who split from Brandon.

Back at Angelus, Brandon shows his true colours, interrogating and near enough torturing Michael, claiming once again that he would do anything to maintain the peace. And then... he frees him. Lets him walk... right into the grasp of his former mercenary, Snezana. Either that or Brandon kills him during their walk, I forget.

---

Look, in writing this, I think it's quite a bad plot I had planned. From the Overtel HQ bit onwards, it just sounds so cliche and disgusting, like more towards bad fanfiction territory. Maybe it would be better off this way. Either way, I'm in the process of writing and planning out my new story: ANIMA NERA

This will be a horror series, to be set in two time periods: 2025 and 2225. The latter will contain certain elements from FTA, but they won't be the focus, instead just being background details. Such details include anti-gravity technology in general, and the existence of the Angelus-Katana group, one of the characters owns an Angelus car.

Apart from that, everything will be original, not much at all to do with wipEout, so I will not be posting it here. But still, thank you all for following me and this story, even if it didn't finish, and my intentions on how I was to finish it being absolutely horrendous. I promise Anima Nera will be better, when I get to posting it.

And this is just the end of my side of the story, I know Jonny is rewriting his side of it, and I wish him all the best, even though he is also primarily focusing on his own things. But that's not in my place to be talking about that, if Jonny is ready to talk about it, then he would be doing so.

...The referenced album title of the final part was We Are Pilots, by Shiny Toy Guns.

I can see how you think that your ideas are a bit cliche, but some bits really have some interesting spins to them. But the first story is always a bit of a mess, but we talked about this ;)
Ultimately I decided to not continue rewriting FTA, as there is simply so much to do, but I also feel no more motivation to continue this project, I'd rather spend the time I commit to writing to an original project.
So yeah, thank you to everyone who stuck with us writing, discussing and dumping random side info into this thing. It was fun and a solid base to make my first steps in writing, I'll always keep that in mind.