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
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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."