May 5th 2513
Sakura gave a sage and wise old smile, words washed away by the thunderous roar of combustion engines, the smell and taste of it all layering her insides.
Half a dozen drones floated overhead like gnats cover her and her buggy. The whole vehicle was little more than a sloped triangle of tubes around an engine. It trembled and shook her bladder as if trying to get the last drops out a bottle.
If she'd ever wondered at the emotions of a roach beneath a boot, she need not wonder anymore. Sakura had her own tube and engine playset, only hers was a mammoth, with giant wheels that could have ground her buggy to dust.
Hers was half of Sakura's in everyway. Which was NOT her choice! But that was fine. JUST FINE!
Genevieve's vehicle wasn't as large as Sakura's, but made up for it by having a front bumper that looked like someone had glued a wall to it. It reminded Kate of a forklift.
Competition mode.
Game: Chariots – Capture the Flag.
Energy Burn Obstacle Rating - High.
Napoleon - Energy Score 100%
Nobonaka – Energy Score 100%
Swamp Thing – Energy Score 100%
Their vehicles revved, Kate's butt tingling.
"Why Swamp thing?"
Kate yelled into her implants, the words read from her lip movements and scrawled across her eyes and also read robotically into her ears.
"I'm still building your profile!"
Sakura said.
"Remember, keep an eye out for fuel scores and Swamp Thing remember, you're the hero. That also means that you can be destroyed easiest. But it also means you have the mobility and control to give us our win!"
Gen yelled.
A horn went off and she stared at Roscoe's tubular behemoth, it was even bigger than Sakura's eldritch god.
G forces shoved Kate in her into seat and she pulled up her gas mask. Clean air! It provided strength Kate had not expected to need. With it she pushed herself, taking control of the car. The wheel and the vehicle were so insanely responsive! The buggy tossed Kate from side to side with even her slightest twitch like her buggy was twerking with a fat ass.
The buggy immediately earned the name Swamp Ass.
With a greater understanding and connection between man and machine, she pushed! Kate catapulted ahead of the girls, shooting for the beam of light in the centre.
And Swamp Ass's wheels spun like a maniac and immediately started eating up the tar and surged forwards.
She half expected the girls to yell for her to slow down. They didn't, they simply rushed up behind her like a grand cape. A gap formed and she pushed down on the accelerator. With no plan on stopping, she drove into the light, the opposing three vehicles coming right at her. Apparently, she was in the smallest and fastest one there.
But moments before she had crossed into the light Kate hit the break, switched gears and hit reverse. The seat belt was the only thing keeping her from flying out the car. The G forces made her head spin as three tubular monstrosities came right at her, no sign of temperance or calming down.
Finally momentum did her a favour and her little Swamp Ass stopped and in the same way a rise must end in a fall, there was stillness, then the Swamp Ass reversed! The faces of the masked drivers so extremely close, her chest quaked with fear when the Swamp Ass finally retreated and picked up speed.
Two flashes of darkness passed her and the cars that had been drawing a straight line to murder her split. One wasn't fast enough and was clipped by that Gen's metal fist of a bumper. The monster car spun, the driver swinging the wheel around as their own seat belt was the only thing keeping them alive.
Warning. You are it.
Fuel consumption increase by 500%
Fuel Score 40%
Huh, there was no chance of her making it to the goal line with the current consumption. She had to slow down and would rather die!
"Guys, guys! My fuel! There a pick up anywhere?"
"That means splitting from you!" Sakura yelled.
"Unless, I'm not it." Kate yelled and picked up speed, time slowed.
Her eyes locking on to the spinning vehicle who'd started to slow and wiggle into some level of control.
She watched his head bounce, his hands wrench and twist away as she turned her wheel slowly, twice as slow as time and her choices worked aligned.
She got closer and closer, her breath gaining more and more strain, demanding air from her despite the mask. Then she twisted her wheel, and the car twisted violently only for her head to jerk, as if she were the one who'd been hammered.
Hit, you are not it.