Mirror: Chapter 17

"Okay, kid and Mr. 12, you need two more wins out of the last four games to promote to advanced."

They nodded as they rolled up to the final pole position.

"In the first position is the Quick Triplets, they rely on speed and evasion to win games. Catching up to them will be no easy task. In the position in front of yours is a guy making me nervous. It's obvious he's using a body outside accepted specs, but the judges haven't ruled on it yet. They probably won't if he attacks you, Adem. Avoid him."

"I'll do that."

"You said you had a plan?" Coach asked, through their earpieces.

"Yeah, don't worry," Alita grinned, tapping her heels to check her rollers, "We'll barrel right down the track!"

Coach snorted and hung up.

"Ready?" Adem extended his hand.

Her mouth parted a moment when she looked at it, then she grinned.

"I thought you'd never ask!"

Red! Yellow! Green!

She shot forward, and he reversed. Like a binary star system, the two accelerated around each other. The tighter he pulled her close, the faster they rotated.

"Fly!" he yelled, straining his arm to throw her. Bright yellow sparks lit up from his shoulder.

She curled as low as possible, to reduce air friction, and like a sparrow, she flitted down the track. By the time the other racers noticed her passing on the outside, she was already ahead of them.

The Quick Triplets were in front, as expected, closing in on the motorball. They looked like a hybrid of man and uni-bike, their lower bodies a huge hollow wheel to maximize their speed.

Motorcentaurs? Whatever, I hate them already.

She curved up the side of the track, then dived down on the motorball like a bird of prey.

"Mine!" she laughed, madly, as she blurred passed the triplets.

Good, all I need to do is not scramble so we don't get disqualified. There's no way they can stop her now.

"Well, Adem, I was worried about how I was going to get to you while she was here, but that makes it real easy."

"Bruno?"

The punch, from a fist half the size of Adem, collided into his forearms. He threw them up on instinct alone, nearly one-hundred races of experience screaming at him to defend himself.

Adem stumbled as he tried to lift himself, failing to notice his right arm was gone. Throwing Alita maxed it out, blocking the punch severed it completely.

Bruno looked like an ape, standing twice as tall as Adem. His arms were long and heavy. Someone had upgraded him, a lot.

Another punch and Adem had to slide back to avoid it.

"Adem!" Coach's voice pinged over the call.

"Coach? What is it? Is Alita okay?"

"What are you doing? You reverse any more out of the starting zone, and you'll get disqualified for scrambling! Get out of the start zone before the judges rule against you again!"

After confirming he was on the end of the zone, Adem whispered, "Shit."

"What's the matter? Feeling cornered?" Bruno patted his fist.

With a brief windup, Adem snaked forward. He faked right, slipped under Bruno's hammering strike, and circled around his legs.

He wasn't home free.

A giant fist flicked behind Bruno as he twisted for Adem, clipping him and sending him flying. Adem crashed, bounced, flipped, and then slid to a stop.

Why is my vision different? Did I lose an eye?

No, I'm fine. He hit me hard enough to knock my helmet off.

"Adem?" Alita's voice pinged.

"Why is everyone calling me all the sudden?"

"Everything okay?"

"Everything's peachy."

His legs were unsteady as he rose up. The two punches he took caused extensive damage to his cybernetic body. Pain wracked him.

"You made it out of the starting zone, right? You didn't start any fights?"

He looked down and laughed, he was knocked clear of it by several feet.

"No," he said, honestly enough, "I'm taking it easy back here, and staying out of trouble. I know you can handle this."

She didn't answer.

"Do me a favor, though. When you win, do a victory lap, as fast as you can."

He hung up before she could start her response, then disabled his phone.

If I can make it to the first set of obstacles, then I can lose this ape in them.

Bruno gave a snort, "You know, the crew always looked at you with weird regard, like you were some sort of fighting machine. Where the hell did that guy go? This is going to be boring, otherwise."

Their eyes locked a moment, and both sneered. Adem's wheels screeched first, as he spun up and raced away from Bruno.

"Running?" Bruno's laughter echoed behind him. Then he could hear Bruno's larger, and much louder, wheels engage.

The Quick Triplets encircled Alita, two in front and one behind. All four of them were caught in a bizarre speeding stand-off. They couldn't close in on her, because she would slice them with her Damascus Blade, and she couldn't go full speed, or they would intercept her, and the third one would attack her blind spot.

She felt like a wounded tiger on a rope. Her call with Adem had left her on edge, and everything felt agonizingly slow. It wasn't enough to win, she had to win quickly.

Rather than take the risk of being wildly slashed, the triplets waited until their moments came, which was when other players made an attempt for the motorball.

But even that wasn't enough to wrest the ball from her. She diced up a three-armed cyborg as he dived in, and warded off the blind-spot attack.

"Shit," she growled.

She had cut the kamikaze cyborg first, but his momentum still drove the knife he was carrying into her abdomen, and the blade broke off inside. Blue cyborg blood started to trickle from the wound.

"Enough of this crap."

She turned and threw the motorball into the chest of the triplet behind her, who caught it with a confused expression. When he looked up, he realized his mistake.

Alita had braked, and he slammed into the monomolecular edge of her blade at full speed, dividing the motorcycle from man.

The other two were quick to capitalize on her exposed back. They, too, learned how foolish they were.

Each of her hands slapped out, grasping the motorball and severed wheel, and she spun like a top.

The first hit stunned both of them. She froze, her arms wrapping around her, then she spun the counter-direction. The impact sent the two of them flying. One exploded against the safety net, the other sprawled on the metal track and the other chasing teams ran him over.

"So that's all you got, huh?"

Adem grunted painfully under Bruno's foot, before being kicked away. Standing up was getting more difficult, and he couldn't regain his balance.

How far to the obstacles? Still not close enough.

After taking a stumbling step, Bruno jammed his finger into Adem's back. It might have well been a battering ram.

Lay still. Catch your breath. It'll hurt less if you focus on your breathing.

"We have a winner!" the announcer screamed, "The invincible Alita!"

Bruno's grip closed around Adem's neck and had enough to spare for his shoulders. The safety net rattled as Bruno pushed Adem against it.

"Seems your girlfriend wins, but you lose."

Adem's exhausted arm flopped on Bruno's thumb, the crook of his elbow hiding half of his face. A fire burned in Adem's exposed eyes.

Cybernetic body parts exploded in all directions, Bruno's hand and Adem's only arm scattered into individual pieces.

Looking down at the stump where his hand should be, Bruno asked, "The hell was that?"

"Harmonics," Adem gasped, "Learned it from a girl I know. She's about to show you the rest."

A blue fireball collided into Bruno's neck, and the speed that the woman-sized cyborg hit Bruno lifted him off his feet and crashing onto his back.