Neither Z1P_ZAP nor ECHO was the last pod standing. While their lasers cooled down, the last green player took out Z1P_ZAP. Just as her cooldown time finished, ECHO was able to pull a one-eighty and take out that racer, but the last blue player shot her while she was vulnerable.
The arena faded away and a menu appeared in front of A11_4_ON3. It was a list of upgrades he could make to his pod. Some of them enhanced the performance of the vehicle. Others were weapons the driver could use to disable other racers.
“Two of us should buy speed upgrades,” ECHO said. “The other one should get a weapon or two for defense.”
Though he couldn’t see them because of the menu screen blocking his view, A11_4_ON3 could tell he wasn’t included in their plan. That was no problem. He didn’t intend to work with them anyway. Z1P_ZAP had lost him a thousand credits and maybe a victory in the arena by shooting him.
“I’ll get the weapon,” STR33T_WIZE said. “This laser looks awesome!”
“What’s it do?” Z1P_ZAP asked.
“Stops a racer cold for ten seconds.”
“Great,” ECHO said. “Z1P and I will get the speed upgrades. I’m also going to upgrade my handling, since I have the extra credits.”
A11_4_ON3 tried to ignore them, looking at the list of possibilities. He had three thousand credits to spend, and he intended to use every last one of them. He definitely wanted a speed upgrade. It cost fifteen hundred. He purchased it. He looked at the handling upgrade, also fifteen hundred. It would help to be able to make sharper turns without using the hand brake, but he dismissed it. The speed upgrade would be enough to give him an edge.
I need a weapon, he thought. Just in case. The laser that STR33T_WIZE bought cost two thousand credits. He couldn’t afford that. He looked through the list for something cheaper and found one that he liked. It was called a “pusher.” When he pulled the trigger, any racer that was too close to him would be pushed away. Like the cannon in the arena, it had a thirty-second cooldown timer. It cost exactly fifteen hundred—the rest of his credits—so he bought it.
When he was done, he was forced to wait while the rest of the racers finalized their purchases. He listened through the communicator as his teammates continued to strategize.
“Stay as close as you can, STR33T,” ECHO instructed. “If you see someone moving up on us, blast ’em with the laser.”
“I’ll try to keep up,” he said. “But you’ll both be going a lot faster than I will. Remember, I don’t have the speed upgrade.”
“Do your best,” she said. “Z1P, stay near me. We’ll protect each other as much as we can.”
“You got it,” Z1P_ZAP said.
There was a long pause. Finally, ECHO asked, “Any chance you want in on this plan, CRU1S—”
“Don’t call me that!” A11_4_ON3 snapped back at her. He’d abandoned the name CRU1S3R when they kicked him out of their crew. “That’s not my name anymore.”
“Whatever,” ECHO said. “Do you want in on this or not? We’ll do better as a team. Even you have to admit that.”
He tried to think of something clever to say. “Nope,” he responded instead. “You do whatever you want. I’m winning this race. Alone.”
“Seriously? You know we need to win as a team,” Z1P_ZAP said. “STR33T, make sure ‘All For One’ here is the first person you blast with that laser.”
“No!” ECHO said. “We have to at least act like a team, and he’s a good racer. If he gets in front of us, just let him go. Letting him win would be good for the whole team.”
“Fake teamwork?” STR33T_WIZE asked. “I can live with that.”
“I think he still needs to be put in his place,” Z1P_ZAP continued. “Maybe coming in last will get the message through his thick skull.”
“No,” ECHO repeated. “We work as much like a team as we can. That means leaving him alone.”
The race loaded. The pods were all lined up at the base of a volcano that was thousands of feet tall with molten lava spewing from the top. The red team was placed on the far left of the track. A dirt road ahead of them led straight into the volcano. This was going to be very different than the qualifying race.
The Game Runner once again appeared in front of them. “Welcome to the first race! You’ll be driving into that,” he said, smiling and pointing to the exploding mountain behind him. “You’ll find the inside has been mostly hollowed out and the finish line is at the top. But be careful—the bottom is still a pool of boiling lava. If you fall in, you lose and will be placed in the lowest available finishing position. Remember, the team that finishes last in this race will be eliminated from the competition.”
The Game Runner vanished and a countdown started down from ten on the pod’s dashboard.
“Remember the plan,” ECHO said over the comm link. “If we’re going to have to race with A11_4_ON3, let’s not get eliminated and have to start over again in another competition. Let’s win this. Ready?”
“In it to win it!” they all said again.
A11_4_ON3 ignored them, instead visualizing himself coming in first place again. He pushed himself deeper into his seat and gripped the handle of the throttle harder, antsy to start. The countdown continued in front of the racers:
THREE
TWO
ONE
GO!
The racers took off. Once again, A11_4_ON3’s pod sped off at the first possible moment. The speed upgrade was powerful—taking off at breakneck speed pushed him farther into his seat. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw ECHO was keeping perfect pace with him. Several of the racers on other teams must have also purchased the speed upgrade. The ones that hadn’t were already beginning to fall behind.
They entered the volcano. The rocky path wound back and forth through the volcano’s center. The track narrowed, only wide enough for two or sometimes three pods across. As the racers entered, some had to slow down and fall in line behind others to avoid hitting another pod or flying off the track. Three blue racers shot past the red team and took the three top positions. A11_4_ON3, ECHO, and Z1P_ZAP took the next three. STR33T_WIZE had fallen back into ninth place without the speed upgrade. Two yellow team members were between them.
The boiling lava below made the interior glow red and orange. Fireballs and falling rocks threatened to destroy the track or land in the racers’ paths. There was a grumbling, constant roar only broken by louder explosions that actually shook the pods.
Keep your eyes on what’s in front of you, A11_4_ON3 reminded himself. Immediately, the track curved right. ECHO got the inside of the turn and pulled slightly ahead of him, but he regained his position when the track curved left next. He also managed to pull ahead of one of the blue racers, but a green pod sped past him. Enjoy it while you can, he thought.
“STR33T,” ECHO called out, “get this yellow guy off my tail.”
“Way ahead of you,” he replied. “Got him!”
In his rearview display, A11_4_ON3 saw a yellow racer stop in the middle of the track. Several other racers had to swerve to avoid hitting the halted pod.
Not bad, he thought, but he refused to give his so-called teammates any encouragement out loud.
The track was a constant incline. It twisted and turned all over the place, sometimes cutting across the middle of the volcano, but in other places hugging the outer wall, going higher and higher up toward the top. While the rumbling never stopped, sometimes the shaking shook the display on A11_4_ON3’s pod and nearly caused him to lose control. Each time the rumbling got particularly bad, he could see other racers swerve all over the road as well.
All the pods were trying to stay close to the middle of the track. The road had no guard rail, so if a pod got too close to the edge, it could tip off the track and into the lava below.
A few minutes into the race, A11_4_ON3 had managed to pass two of the three blue racers in front of them. He could see ECHO in his rearview tailing only a little behind him. She had also managed to pass the blue racers, but just as he glanced at her, a yellow pod dodged to her right and pulled ahead, right behind A11_4_ON3.
The yellow pod moved up on him. A11_4_ON3 tried to nudge the racer off the track by steering left, but the yellow pod slowed down just before he collided with it. Instead of hitting the pod, he swerved to the left, nearly falling off the edge himself.
He gritted his teeth. When he thought he was about halfway up the volcano, he glanced at his rearview display. ECHO wasn’t far behind him. The yellow racer that he had tried to nudge off the track had steadied and was positioned between them.
“You guys keeping up?” It was ECHO checking in with the rest of the team.
“Right behind you,” Z1P_ZAP said.
“I’m falling behind,” STR33T_WIZE said. “I need to get that speed upgrade next time. There’s no way I can compete without it.”
“You don’t need to take first,” ECHO reassured him. “We just need our combined score to be better than one other team’s. I think we’re doing fine. I’m in fourth and CRU—A11_4_ON3 is in second.”
As they neared the top of the volcano, the turns got tighter and came more frequently. Occasionally, the turns were so sharp the drivers had to practically make a U-turn to stay on course. The bottom of the track seemed like a cakewalk compared to this, and that hadn’t been easy.
A11_4_ON3 kept trying to get close enough to the blue racer in front of him to edge the player out or even just use the pusher weapon to throw the pod off, but this racer was good. When he tried to pass on the left, the driver moved into position to block his path. A11_4_ON3 shifted to pass on the right, but again, the driver blocked the attempt.
“Gah!” Z1P_ZAP shouted. “Someone hit me with the same laser STR33T’s got. I can’t move!”
“Okay,” ECHO began, “don’t panic. When you can move again, just—”
“Z1P, look out!” STR33T_WIZE shouted suddenly. “Ahhhh, I hit her! No, no, no! We’re both off the track!”
“What?” Echo burst out. “What happened?”
There was silence over the comm. A11_4_ON3 was surprised to realize he felt bad for them. He shook off the feeling. All I can do is take first, he thought.
“I hit her while she was stopped.” STR33T_WIZE was breathing deeply. “I pushed her off the track, and I lost control and fell off myself. We both got eliminated. Sorry, Z1P.”
“It’s not your fault,” she replied. “But we were the first two to fall off the track. We’re in fifteenth and sixteenth place.”
Out of sixteen racers, A11_4_ON3 thought. The team’s in dead last.