The Great Race of Doom II

“What are you doing in my room!” the blonde haired young woman yelled.

The leather clothed young man looked up from the diary he was reading and smiled. “Ah, Roery! Long time no see.”

Holding the towel tightly around her, the girl stomped over and ripped the book out of his hands. “How did you know where I lived?” she asked curtly, brushing the wet hair out of her eyes.

“Now is that any way to treat an old friend?” Zyler asked, still smiling. “How long’s it been, almost a year, right?”

Roery rolled her eyes and strolled over to the dresser, opening the drawers and grabbing a pair of clothes quickly. “Just what are you doing here?” she asked, turning to glare at him.

“I just came to see my old friend again. Does there have to be some other reason behind it?” He asked, taking careful note of the undergarments in her hand.

“You think I’m stupid?” she asked, turning and slamming the bathroom door behind her.

“Ouch...” the blue haired man mumbled to himself as he sat up and leaned forward. “I don’t suppose you remember that time I saved your neck back at the canyon.” He asked, idly grabbing a picture frame off the bed side desk.

“... Just what do you want?”

Zyler chuckled slightly. “Like I said! I wanted to see one of my good friends again.” He answered, putting the picture back down. “And also... I have some news I think you might be interested in hearing about.”

“... Um hum…”

“See... the race is ganna be starting up again in a few weeks—it’s an annual thing, you know—and I thought it’d be a great way for us to get to know each other a little better.”

Roery snorted humorously. “You really think I’m ganna join that crappy little race again? That was one of the worse experiences of my life.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. You got to meet me because of it, didn’t you?” He asked with a grinning. “Besides, you looked pretty happy by the end of it.”

Roery staid silent for a second before opening the door, fully dressed, and stepping out of the bathroom. Zyler was standing right in front of her. “The answers no.”

“Ah, but see. I’m not taking no for an answer.” He took a step closer and placed his hand gently on her neck. Roery stiffened and got ready to bash his skull in any second.

“See, this time I came prepared.” He said with a small smirk. “Zap.”

Roery winced as a small pain shot into the side of her neck. For a moment, she couldn’t bring the strength to her limbs to cause the blue haired man serious injury or death. Zyler moved his hand away, revealing a small black sign on her neck. “There we go. The curse is set, of course it won’t activate until the race starts, so I hope you’ll be joining us.” He stated with a relatively pleasant smile. Roery clenched her jaw and promptly kneed the blue haired freak in the crotch, hard, and strolled out of the room, leaving Zyler to crumble on her room floor.

The young man winced and coughed into his fist. “...Man, I love that girl.”

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

It was the same old seen as last year, only this time she was among the willing contestants, ironic as it was. She was on the outskirts of a large tent settlement which had been set up for about a week. Most contestants liked to get there early so they could find out as much as possible about the races conditions and info about the other riders to better their chances of winning and receiving the small fortune granted to whoever won first place. Roery had arrived with only a few hours before sunrise, when the race would start. She wanted to be there for as short a time as possible.

A few hundred yards away stood another gathering of tents and shanty houses, all containing those who were forced to compete in the race. Behind it stood the massive purple dragon and the large herd of creatures and beasts, all either mounts for the riders, or sentient animals, and all were fast asleep, held under the queen dragons spell. To the side of the tent was fenced every mechanical vehicle you could think of, all belonging to the riders held captive in the tents.

Of course, Roery couldn’t see all this from where she stood, but she knew the general gist of the layout from past experiences, having been held there about a year ago. It wouldn’t be long now before the captives would be freed so they could prepare themselves, unwillingly or not, for the race to come.

“Ah! You came!”

Roery turned and glared at the man approaching her.

“You know, I’m really starting to get used to that face. Before long I wont even be able to say your name without picturing that cute scowl of yours. Not so say I don’t do that already.”

“I’m sure.” Roery said dully before turning to leave.

“Hey, you got that little present I left you, right? I hope that was enough to fix your bike up.” He said hopefully. Of course there had been more then enough to buy a whole new bike.

“What, and you think that’s ganna make up for what you’ve done to me?”

“Well, not exactly. Just a kiss would do.” He said with a smile.

Roery closed her eyes and fumed silently to herself. She then pulled a large leather bag out of her jacket pocket and chucked it at the blue haired man. “I took what I needed to fix my bike, but I don’t want any more of your charity. Just stay away from me.” She stated before spinning around and walking away.

OoC: If your joining this and you haven’t read the first Great Race of Doom already, then you have to at least read the first post.

I think the people who are joining this are Puck, Zorolo, ML, Scholar, insaney, and HH. I'll allow eight people total so if you have a character that can compete in the race and you want to join, send me a PM. There’s ganna be no posting order so if you take too long to post you'll get left behind =P

The race track will go through many different terrain’s and will last for multiple days, so anyone can change up the terran or time of day whenever they want in their posts.
Zyler; Roery's bike

"Should be around here somewhere..." the demonic demon hunter muttered as he walked along the coarse, parched ground, his black leather boots crunched loose rocks and gravel beneath his feet. He tilted his hat up slightly, granting his vision a bit of extra light, even through his darkened sunglasses, looking back and forth. "You can camouflage all you want... It's just a matter of time before I find you, c'mon, give it up already so I can get my paycheck!" Liam yelled, ending his call with a sinister grin, taking his glasses off and scanning around the landscape.

"I'm giving you three seconds to come out now or else I won't have hesitation for when I actually find you and believe me, I will actually find you if you don't. Pick, c'mon," he growled.

"One..." he began, taking off his dark leather gloves off each pallid, pale hand and putting them in his black coats' pockets.

"Two..." he said, gripping the ends of his sleeves and rolling them up slightly, grinning again.

"Ah, c'mon, two and a half?" he asked, sighing and cracking his knuckles, flexing out of his fingers slightly.

Suddenly, the mercenary heard something approaching, but it certainly wasn't the demon he had been tracking. Wing-beats of something. He sighed and wheeled around, seeing the familiar face, the blue-haired, young-looking and leather garbed punk, Zyler. Liam scowled as the guy soared close on the damn dragon-like beast of his.

"Hey there!" he cheerfully called out, with an ear-to-ear smirked on his face, which was more than sickening to the demon hunter.

"What do you want, kid, I'm busy, sod off!" Liam scolded, not wanting anything to do with this brat.

Zyler let out a slight chuckle and shook his head, that smirk still there. "All I wanted was to extend an invitation to-"

Before the blue-haired man could finish, Liam materialized a board of metal beneath his feet, reversing its polarity to that of the ground and speeding off, flying the board swiftly away. A few moments later, Zyler was riding right beside Liam, smirking still. "Go away, kid!" Liam yelled, stomping the back of his board into the ground and an upheaval of dirt and rocks flew everywhere, making a thick cloud.

Liam sped off in a new direction, looking back at the cloud and laughing. He turned to face the new destination, back to where his target was and suddenly stopped, seeing Zyler already ahead of his path, his dragon mount circling above, like a vulture ready to swoop down on its prey. "Wasn't the race fun, c'mon, one more, it comes around every year!"

"Ok, obviously I can't talk my way out of this. Hmm... how to sort out a problem without talking... oh, I know!" Liam growled, a metal blade protruded out of his forearm. The mercenary hopped off his board and his ride was pulled to his free arm, curving and contorting to craft a cruel, spiked shield. He swung the blade in a diagonal slash, aiming to start at his right shoulder, hoping to eviscerate the man.

Zyler, still with that sickening smirk of his, ducked under the swipe and delivered an uppercut to Liam's neck, but instead of a closed fist that hit, his open hand gripped around Liam's neck and a surge of that strange shocking energy wrecked through the mercenary's system for a long, brutalizing moment. Zyler released his grip, leaving the cursed mark on the side of his neck.

"So I'll so you there!" Zyler smirked and his dragon flied down to him, allowing him to climb on. Liam, with his uncanny ability to regenerate, rose back up and grabbed the man's foot, yanking him down and delivering a crippling punch to his left kidney. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to it!" he shouted, before storming off, leaving Zyler to slowly try and recover.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liam sighed, looking back and forth as some of the 'participants' were arriving at the tent area, getting ready for the race. The mercenary groaned, pacing back and forth with a combination of rage and anxiety. Liam sighed once more, but tilted his glasses down to see a blond-green eyed girl that he'd seen before.

Liam made his way over. "Hey, you look familiar. You were in the last race, I don't think we've officially met, I'm Liam, and you are-"

"Roery," the woman said, almost eager to cut of his sentence, not in the most hospitable mood, but who could blame her.

"Hey, Roery, that's quite a unique name. So you got re-shackled into this mess too, huh? Hey listen, I wanna get outta here as fast as humanly possible, so you seem like you're pretty experienced enough. How 'bout... I help you during this ordeal, you help me, we split the prize once we win? Hell, you can have more than half, how's that sound?"

Right beside a tent, but a little way from it was where all the vehicles lined up. Every vehicle, both known and unknown to man were lined up neatly awaiting their drivers and the start of the race. There were cars, bikes and even small jets. And some things were there that even the government had no name or special 'project code' for.

All of them looked like if they were in mint condition: filled tanks, oiled up, fine tuned and ready to go. The road was before them, all that were needed now were their drivers and the start of the race...

Another vehicle pulled up next to the last one, but no one came out, and the engine didn't cut off. It remained like that for a long while. Some people passed by, wondered who left their car running, and then moved on, shrugging their shoulders.

"Say, I don't remember you or your driver..." A blue-haired man ran his hand along the hood of the jet black car.

He didn't notice the red light at the front that pulsed as a white light ran across it.

"So who's the driver? Is he still in the car?"

The man squinted his eyes and tried looking through the heavily tinted windshield. He bent over a little, holding his side and wincing slightly, probably receiving pain from some old injury. He soon gave up when he couldn't see if anyone was in the car.

Suddenly, the car's engine revved.

"Oh, so there's someone in the car? Come on out and let's have a talk."

The door did not open, the car kept running.

The blue-haired man seemingly got impatient. He raised a finger and pointed it at the hood of the car.

"Zap."

A bolt of lightning shot out of his finger and hit the hood. Sparks flew for a while, followed by a high-pitched whining sound and then a shockwave caused by a electro-magnetic pulse; the result of the nanomachines on the car's body dispelling any extra electricity.

Suddenly the car pulled itself forward and rammed into the man. He fell forward unto the hood, his face went smack against the windshield, leaving a tiny smear of blood from a busted lip.

He slid off after a small while and walked away, wiping the blood of his lips and limping.

"If you wanna race that badly, fine. The more the merrier!" he grinned.

The windshield-wipers started up, scraping the blood off the glass. Too bad, rain wasn't falling to help wash it away.

OoC: Okay, for this thread, Emile's armor is mildly different. Her chest plate has a much higher voltage level than normal, her thrusters have a longer period of use, she's overall much much faster, and her armor is stronger. Now then, let there be fun. ^_^

BiC: "Well if this doesn't suck!" Emile muttered as she continued to walk along with a large bag over her shoulders and a wrapped cylinder across her back. She looked around at the massive field that would be the battlefield in the games to come. She had heard word of it through the grape vine through a friend. Now was the true test of her speed. This would be fine. This would be fun.

The Silver Beauty looked at the other combatants with a smile as she took the bag off of her back and placed her pack on the bag. The woman took her spear out of the wrapping that had bound it and smiled. The Divine Lancer was ready to dance, and so was her spear.

The purple haired girl picked up her helmet and put it on. Pressing the button on the right side, the whole helmet lit up for a moment as words flashed across the screen. "Gravitate, armor!" Emile yelled as her armor scattered into the air and flew towards her, equipping itself to her almost by thought. The roller battler picked up her spear and placed it along her back and smirked as he skated. forwards.

"Hello!" a man with blue hair said as he approached her and shook her hand forcefully. "Welcome to my race. Now then, before you can begin, you need something," he told her as a volt of electricity ran through her suit. A mark appeared on her forehead and she stepped back, mildly woozy.

"What was that?" the purple haired girl asked as she looked at the man.

"Just something you need to compete. Now then, go forwards."

Emile nodded and grunted angrily as she skated to the starting line. It was time to kick ass and take names.

o=)---------- A peaceful meadow... somewhere----------(=o

Today had been a relatively normal day in the life of Zorlo, the Aura Master and fencer of Tasogare. The clouds were few, the sun shined down on the meadow, and there were at least four thousand troops surrounding him. Just another normal day for the Aura Master to kill time on. Even so, the blue haired man in front of him seemed to be smiling. Clearly, he knew who he was up against.

The man laughed nervously as he extended his hand. "Hello... my name is Zyler and its an infinite honor to meet you, Mr. Zorlo. I've come to ask your assistance," he said, shaking in his boots. The figure that had its back to him turned and smiled at the man, probably reassuring the blue haired man for a second.

The fencer held his hand out and shook the man's hand. A volt of lightning rushed towards the fencer, and he merely smiled as the blue haired man yelped in pain. "I'm Zorlo, the Fencer of Tasogare and Aura Master. It's honor to meet you. And now, why did you bring nearly four thousand men to meet me? After all, not one of them looks at all confident."

The sound of shaking echoed outwards from the ranks as the fencer released Zyler's hand, the man nursing his nearly broken hand as he looked at the fencer. "I've cursed you! Now then, you must join my race!" he said nervously, the sweat beading from his body clear.

Zorlo could have easily dispelled the curse and proceed to defeat four thousand men, but that would be too easy. Instead the fencer nodded and walked towards a tree. Resting his hand on the tree, a group of monkeys appeared moments later with a camel with them and handed the reins to Zorlo. The Aura Master nodded as he and his camel trotted off towards the race and the starting line. After all, this had the potential to be fun.

In all things we must make a choice. To win or to lose, it is really all up to you. If you chose victory then have at her, fight to your hearts content with the knowledge you can win, and win you shall. That is how Derrik believed. In all things he did, he refuted the idea that losing was an option, to him losing meant death. So he would not lose. Derrik sighed lightly as he planned his next move, all the while washing the hood of his car.

"That's a nice car you got there,"

Derrik did not bother towards the man as he spoke, "What of it,"

"I bet it can go pretty fast,"

"What of it,"

"Are you interested in a race?"

Derrik looked up at the man for a second and then promptly ignored him uttering only a word, "No."

"I wasn't asking," The blue haired man smiled lightly,"I was telling you that you are going to be in this race whether you want to or not,"

Derrik turned his shot gun already pointing at the man's head, "Listen, I don't know who you think you are but I don't have time to play games with some blue haired freak,"

"The names Zyler," The man said confidently, pushing down the barrel of Derrik's gun, "I wouldn't kill me if I where you, or you might find yourself, quite dead. You see I have put a curse on you, and only I can lift it, if you don't play games with me, then you die by the time the race is finished. However, if you wanna play then I might let you live,"

"A curse...like poison?" Derrik laughed, "Fine, but after I win this race, I am going to come for you,"

"Deal,"

---__--__--__---

Derrik drove up towards the tents just as the race was about to start. Like all things he was planning on winning this race, no matter who or what would race against him. Opening up his trunk Derrik took out box after box of ammo, of all kinds, and placed them all carefully in the back seat of his car.

OoC: I'm gonna use Mirorin, he's going to be doing a mix of flying and riding demi-elemental animals, depending on the terrain and what mood I'm in when I post.

BiC: "Why did I agree to this again?" The Elemental asked, looking at all the mountable beasts and restless competitors.

"Because you think with the brain in your pants, and thus weren't given a choice." The Violet eyed temptress smirked.

"Ah, that. Thanks for reminding me of that Vylla, I'll store those memories away for later." He smirked, and with that, he walked over to join the rest of the racers, rubbing the bite mark on his neck. I'm a fighter, not a racer... But I suppose this could prove interesting.

------------------FLASHBACK WARNING------------------

It had been a boring day, Mirorin was visiting a town with an Arena, having tired of Ragnarok's stiff attitude. I just can't understand something like that, my brainchild, could become such an "All-Business" place. None of them are any fun to be around, at all, the Elemental lamented silently, bumbling through town towards the nearest brothel with the intention of spending his winnings. He made his way towards the red light district, drunk with success, and feeling invincible.

"Found it!" He blurted, seeing a suitable dive. The Antlus, was the name, though the Neon sign's t and l were out, making Mirorin giggle. So, walking into the Anus, Mirorin looked for potential enjoyment. There were a few girls at tables together, but experience had taught him to avoid groups and isolate the target. Looking to the bar, Mirorin found what he was looking for. A single woman among the men at the bar, and she was gorgeous. Bubblegum pink hair, and dressed in scant purple leather, her profession seemed obvious, but then she turned, and he saw her mesmerizing purple eyes. Forgetting any qualms of hotdog-hallway scenarios, he sat down next to her, neglecting to order a drink. "What brings you here?" He asked the beauty.

"I'm here to find some real men for a big annual race." She purred, locking those pools of bliss on him Then, switching to a hushed voice, "Well, that's what I tell everyone, I'm actually looking for a goodpartner, if you know what I mean."

The way she said it got Mirorin's attention quick enough, and he announced aloud, "I'm a real man, why don't you tell me about this *ahem* race of yours, somewhere else, away from all this noise." The black clad man stood, and led the girl outside by the hand, glee apparent in his demeanor. Once they reached the outside air, she took the lead, taking him through back streets and twisted shortcuts and eventually to a moderate sized apartment section a few blocks away. She hurried him up the stairs, giggling the whole way, and at her door, she turned and kissed him long and deep.

Rubbing against her, Mirorin pressed her body into the door until her key found the lock and the door flung open. There was a lot of rubbing and kissing on the way to the bed as Mirorin's natural lack of inhibition took over after the first kiss. When they reached it, she threw him onto the mattress and the leather covering her top half disappeared. Mirorin's eyes rolled up into his head, and she jumped on top of him, kissing his neck. Taking initiative, his hands began roaming, and as soon as he got a good squeeze in, she bit him, hard, and his whole body felt a burning sensation as he quickly lost consciousness.
----------------------------------
Vylla left the apartment after writing him a short note and redressing, only to find Zylar leaning on the wall outside her door.

"Well that's one way to do it." The punk smirked, taunting her.

"Shut it blue boy, you've got your methods, and I've got mine." She growled. "Besides, mine is much more fun than yours."
----------------------------------

Awaking to a headache, Mirorin's first thought was that he had a hangover, then he felt a sharp pain in his neck, and the details of the night before flooded back to him. Getting up, he saw a folded note on the nightstand by her bed. Reading it, he smiled.

Dear Mr. "Real man",

You said you were interested in the race, and now, you're signed up. Go look in the mirror, that mark is a curse that activates when the race begins, sapping your health if you refuse to participate or go too far outside the boundaries. The only way to break it is to finish the race, but don't worry, there's also a huge prize for the winner. Attached is a map leading you to the starting line, be sure to show up before the race starts or you might die.

XOXO,
Vylla

P.S. If you win, I might let you feel my breasts again. <3
-----------------END FLASHBACK------------------

Reaching the rest of the "willing contestants", Mirorin held his hand out, and constructed a lesser Electrical Elemental based off of the horse. Materializing some reins for it, Mirorin held his mount steady and waited for the race to begin.

OoC: Yay for not using Zylar to recruit my character!

OoC: This brings back memories. : D

BiC:

Not again. Everything went blank except for that one thought. What she had been doing before didn't even matter at this point because from this point on her world would be turned upside down. And left. And right. In every direction faceable except for the right way. Meghana barely suppressed an agonized groan.

“Hey! I remember you!” the young girl exclaimed before bounding down a flight of stairs toward the tamer.

Think, she commanded herself. Her eyes surveyed the area, looking for any escape, but the street was crowded to an excruciating degree. Either way, she would not be trapped again. “Excuse me,” she said, shoving a women out of the way. “Pardon me,” she said, elbowing another man in the stomach. “Oh, I'm terribly sorry,” she said, paying barely any notice to the women whose toes she had just stepped on. If I could just get to Mindgleam before that wretch catches up with me...

“Hi! I think you didn't hear me before,” came the forebodingly cheery voice from just behind her.

Meghana spun around, consequently hitting several other people, but she had no time to be polite. “H-how did you get here?”

“Oh, its no problem when you're as short as I am,” she said almost proudly. All Meghana could see was a pair of grotesque sparkling neon pink lips moving. But, she knew what else was there. Forever the image of this child would be etched into her mind. The bouncing curls, the intuitive auburn eyes, the horrible mis-usage of the colors red and pink. Even her diminutive stature seemed frightening in Meghana's memory. Remembering all of this, she was very tempted to put her hands over her ears and begin a litany of lalala's. But this was a villain in her life she needed to face.

“I see,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. Fear wouldn't allow any more decibels escape her lips. How absurd to be afraid of a girl, surely still in her young teens. She cleared her throat. “I mean, I see.”

“Yeah, yeah... so, do you still have that pretty dragon of yours?” [/i]Missy[/i] asked with a little too much interest. Even her name was repulsive in Meghana's mind.

The illusionist took evasive action. “No.” There was a pause in which it was obvious an explanation was required. Meghana was far too dubious of her lying abilities to try to provide one so the uncomfortable silence dragged on.

“Oookay,” the annoying girl said, stretching the syllable to impossible lengths. “Well, I know you're lying.”

“Really?” Meghana asked her, not wanting to give her any insight on how right she was.

Missy snorted, amazingly making such a small gesture annoying. “Yeah, I mean. Your dragon is like flying right above us.” She pointed up with one pink finger. The illusionist followed it only to see Mindgleam hovering in the air, barely 20 feet above them.

What horrid timing for it to respond to my distress. Before she could come up with another poor lie, or attempt running away again, a shock jolted her entire frame. This feels familiar...

“Oh, by the way, the race is starting up again,” Missy said, offhandedly. “You'll be participating this year, naturally.”

“No,” came the hazy murmur from the illusionist's numb lips. Her limbs no longer functioned and her body folded over itself as gravity took over. She felt the faint trail of panic from her dragon's mind, but as Missy answered back, the fuzzy corners of her vision closed in on her.

“Yes,” said the high pitched voice, distant, yet still getting the message across. Meghana would be racing.

~ ~ ~

When she came to, Meghana was already prepared for what would happen. She crossed the tent to a set of clothes better suited for riding for extended periods of time. Hard, leather, yet still comfortable. She grabbed the entirely of her hair and wound it together into a bun. Walking out of the tent, she saw the rest of her competition, those whom she would experience another one of these hellish trips with. A smirk played on the corners of her lips.

ooc: Joined this thread on I)ragon's request

bic:
So this was bureaucracy at its finest. The first few years in the Dome, Lex was very conservative, and spent about as much money as a homeless hobo. The liquid asset of the Telani's contributions to help him finish the war, however were very considerable and so, mostly because he'd been unhappy, Lex got into business. More specifically, he had a publisher make a logo, and then put a considerable dip into the stock market (around the tune of starting a major company) and then, just for fun, bought a skyscraper.

And then he did what he liked the most, hired a bunch of scientists to research cybernetics and had them fully speck his bionic eye and arm, and had them attempt to recreate the technology. Ironically, out of this research they patented an assembly line arm and freeze dried ice cream (actually, that was from the stim packs) and got no where near breaking cybernetics, but Lex's assets flew through the roof in about two months.

When he got bored of getting kicked out of his own skyscraper for wandering around the floors drunk and bothering the yocals, he tried his hand at being a police officer for a while. But of course, as soon as he had made any money, this world's version of the IRS, the Beuro of Revenue Procurement, the BRP told him he had to send 20 kids to college and give a million dollars to three different charities of his choice.

A night at a local bar, a tipsy blindfolded blonde with a dartboard, and a cell phone and about fifty credit card charges later and Lex had this all taken care of. The first year of the big race of doom, Lex went skiing on the largest volcano in the Dome with that same blonde after a massive blue dragon got mad at his mountain having become a giant volcano and froze the whole thing solid, as well as the two metropolitan cities that were under the mountain. To this day, Lex couldn't tell you this blonde's name.

And so Lex's life went on till one day he was doing his bills and saw a check for a million dollars signed by himself for a charity called "The Great Race Foundation." A quick look-up on Google had Lex furious and firing up his mecha suit to take care of the vagabond that had started this whole thing, screaming 'slavers and dog fighting cages race of doom my freaking eye!' (yes, he was drunk)

The castle was easy enough for Lex to see, though most of the patrons were not able to see through the cloak, and had they been able to, were generally unwittingly stripped of this ability/technology before they were brought anywhere near the area. Lex made his usual discreet entrance, flying straight through the roof of the largest antechamber, to land right in front of the castle's patron.

Lex stood there, not really expecting anything but a huge fight, not someone standing there to talk to.

"I uh... I want my money back." He said lamely.

Zap! Lex stopped the electrical shock with his jacket. He'd made a couple of modifications to make the jacket stop magic almost as well as it stopped mini missiles. Lex was ready and willing to take down whatever and whoever, but then at a hug tremor, the hole in the ceiling was widened enough to make room for a silver dragon, and then a huge purple dragon. The big one trapped Lex with one massive scaly hand.

"That suit of... thingy is pretty cool" said an annoyingly cheery voice. Lex could make out his surroundings just barely between the dragon's fingers and saw a shock of blue hair dismount the silver dragon and walk over to his mecha suit. The mecha pointed a massive arm cannon right at the shock of blue hair and fired. This was stopped by the wing of the larger dragon. The wing bashed at the armor like it was any other vehicle that could be smashed and tipped over. The metal suit went right through a wall, keeping its balance and was otherwise unscathed. The kid's jaw, finally in view, dropped open.

A deep, gravely woman's voice came from behind; "Zyler I want you to meet one of our patrons, in fact he's our largest contributor." The dragon's fingers were spread just enough for Zyler and Lex to meet.

"So how fast would you say that thing went, you here to see your dollar put to good use." Zyler snapped his fingers, "I know! You've come to race yourself, it's really an honor mister!"

"You really never stop talking do you." Lex wasn't even looking at Zyler, trying to get a glimpse at the woman, who's face he hadn't actually seen yet. It seemed unusually cloaked in shadows, although sunlight poured in from the new skylight.

"Stop wasting our time Zyler!" The old crone snapped, at least Lex was sure it was an older woman. "Curse him and render him unconscious, he will be attending as an 'unwilling contestant.'"

Zyler faltered, "Begging your pardon, we don't put patrons in the race, I've been specifically forbidden!"

"No patron has ever seen my castle!" The crone’s voice took on an unnatural, almost beastly tone. "If he wins the race we'll have to deal with him, but what we hope is that his fate is the fate of eighty percent of the contestants."

Zyler looked scared, but if he was scared of Lex, or of breaking the rules, he looked more scared of the voice behind Lex. He pointed at Lex, and a mark appeared on Lex's neck. Lex wasn't one to go unconscious easily, and he started feeling woozy. This pissed him right off. He wound up his right arm and punched, and a finger of the dragon was suddenly sticking a bit more sideways than it should have. Lex clawed through and then blasted the rest of the way out. Zyler's bolt hit Lex's back, completely harmlessly. Then a purple glowing rope wrapped around Lex's waist. The mecha suit went into action and blasted six missiles right at the shadowy woman. The missiles slowed, and then started to pull themselves apart. Parts fell to the floor till the explosives were all that were floating. Orbs of water appeared around these, and then they were detonated, shining brightly, but making no noise and not breaking the watery orbs.

Everyone turned to deal with Lex, but he wasn't answering, floating in the air and limp, still tethered by the patron's rope.

“Hey listen, I wanna get outta here as fast as humanly possible, so you seem like you're pretty experienced enough. How 'bout... I help you during this ordeal, you help me, we split the prize once we win? Hell, you can have more than half, how's that sound?”

Roery remembered this guy from last years go around. They had gotten into a few scuffles but in the end didn’t cause her too much trouble. Her first thought now was to floor him and leave, but she decided to consider his words for a moment first. Chances were, there wouldn’t be anyone else coming up and offering her help throughout the race, (except for Zyler, of course, but she was thrilled at that idea either) and she knew from experience that allies were almost essential to have in this doomed race.

She wasn’t particularly interested in the prize split, only to better her chances of living through the race. The blond inhaled and gestured boredly with her hand. “Yeah, sure. Sounds great. You watch my back, I’ll watch yours so you can continue to watch mine.” She stated, only partially trying to sound sincere about it. But it seemed to do the trick, as the shady fellow tipped his hat to her and grinned.

“I knew I could count on you, Roery. I assure you, you won’t be disappointed.”

Roery feinted a polite smile. “Great. Well I’ll see you out there.” She then turned and proceeded to head back to her bike. She was beginning to wonder if there was one decent man in the entire lineup. Suddenly, a large burly man went out of his way to bump into her, nearly toppling over on top of her. He almost held back a laugh as he tried to apologize like it was a complete accident. Well that answered that question. The man hit his head on the ground soon after, with Roery’s help of course, and she moved on.

Of course, what did she expect? The place was inhumanly crowded, full of bloodthirsty bounty hunters that were just looking for a thrill ride and a prize to shoot for.

The green eyed girl crouched next to her bike and inspected the equipment once more, making sure she brought enough food and supplies to last her a week. She had already done this a few times before, but she honestly didn’t have anything better to do at the moment. The girl was about as prepared as she could get for the race to come.

The night sky lightened into a deep blue that was lighter at the eastern side of the horizon. The sun was coming up, which meant the race would be starting soon. The hundreds of contestants were becoming more restless now, starting full on brawls in some areas.

“Welcome, one and all, to the Great Race!” The entire conglomeration stopped what they were doing to look up at the beauty in the sky. The violet-eyed woman was enlarged enough for everyone to see, but was obviously an illusion. The organization that was holding the race had argued about whither to use the woman as the announcer or not. While the illusion would diffidently get everyone’s attention, it was also likely that the contestants would be caught in her trance instead of actually listening to the rules.

The bell like voice sounded in every corner of the gathering as the temptress continued. “To all you noobies out there, the rules are simple; the first person to make it past the finish line will win the grand prize.” There was a flash of light as a large metal chest overflowing with all manner of treasures appeared next to the woman in the sky. Now people were having a hard time deciding which figure to look at.

“The course will be marked by green flares.” With another flash of light, a green flare replaced the chest. “And the borders marked by red flares. And just as a fair warning, it is in everyone’s best interest to stay within the boundaries at all time.” The woman winked to the crowd before continuing. “Now remember, have fun, and, more importantly, anything goes!” The curvy female form started to fade as she finished. “The Great Race will start when the sun reaches the bottom of the pillars!”

By now, everyone was gathered between the two large pillars that stood half a mile from each other, creating the starting line. Every man, beast and machine that could fly was already doing so and everyone on the ground was pushing and shoving and cutting and shooting to get at the front of the line.

Stuck right in the middle of it all, the armored girl stayed low on her bike, trying to avoid any stray bullets, hammers, missiles, or falling dragons. She gritted her teeth, waiting for the race to start so she could finally have some room to breathe.

The sun peaked over the horizon now and a good portion of the flyers made there way away from the starting line. A moment latter, the sound of a sonic boom rang deafeningly through the air as the light touched the bottom of the pillars and Zyler on his sliver mount lead the air riders over the starting line at breakneck speeds. On the ground, everyone was running over everyone else to get to the front. The blonde haired girl wove haphazardly, as carefully as she could, through the sea of machines and beasts. The Great Race of Doom had started... again.

OoC: Bah, I already wrote up how the race started in the last race. Sorry if this seems a little rushed.

The mercenary let out a loud sigh as he sauntered up to the starting line, shoving other contestants out of the way to get there, not really caring what they had to say about it. He was finally in front of most of the other racers and he looked to his right side and to his left, observing his competition. There was Roery on her bike of course, along with several other monstrous men on giant machines, beasts, everything you could think of. I looked up, noticing several flying machines or winged monsters bearing their riders overhead. There seemed to be even more here than the first time.

Liam sighed, standing on his feet. He looked so strange, at the front of the line, with no vehicle or anything to ride or drive. He even heard a couple of jeers about his stupidity. The hunter grinned, shaking his head slightly, removing the black leathery gloves off his ashen hands and snapped his fingers at the ground, materializing his metallic board and standing on it, snapping his fingers on the opposite hand, making the board levitate about a foot off of the ground. After putting his gloves back on and watching the strangely beautiful announcer woman, the race began once the sun got low enough, creating a dusky, orange hue in the sky.

Engines blasted and revved, beasts growled and roared, tires whirred and screeched, thrusters ignited, hundreds of racers instantly shot of from the starting line. Liam leaned forward on his board and jetted with them, increasingly in speed, watching the ground fly underneath his feet. The mercenary looked over at a man who was piloting a sort of helicopter machine, a low-flying mount. Liam grinned darkly, standing sideways on his board to face him. The pilot blinked, staring at the demon hunter, wondering what he was going to do. Liam suddenly sprang off his board, landing on the glass cockpit window of his machine and staring down at the pilot with a grin.

The pilot gripped the clutch, immediately swerving in the air, trying to throw the saboteur off of his vehicle. Liam would have none of it, gripping the hatch of the cockpit door tightly, putting his free hand against the window and smashing it open, the shards of glass embedding in his fist and forearm but he didn't mind, grabbing the pilot by the neck, watching him try to squirm and wriggle free. The mercenary cut him free of his seatbelts and yanked him out of his seat, letting him drop to the ground, though the fall would be a lot less than fatal. Liam quickly summoned his board back to him and hopped on his ride, letting the copter lazily drop out of the sky, onto a couple of unsuspecting racers.

Liam smirked to himself, wincing as he plucked several large pieces of glass out of his skin, sighing with slight relief as his skin began to regenerate, the cut flesh mending back together, not leaving a mark upon him. Liam looked back to see the flying machine’s debris littering the ground behind him, making an obstacle on the course. He grinned, laughing quietly to himself as he continued to press forward, advancing past the legions of other racers ahead of him.

“Well this is even easier than last time!” he smirked, keeping his eyes centered on the horizon. “I don’t even have to-,“ he winced, glaring down at his left calf, seeing a hole in the leg of his pants, blood seeping out of it, an obvious bullet wound. Liam growled, looking back at another motorcycle-resembling vehicle, although this one was equipped with a sidecar, and said sidecar was equipped with a mounted machine gun.

“Oh, you wanna play, huh?!” I yelled back at the driver and gunner. The one manning the turret aimed it dead at the mercenary, firing another burst of bullets. Liam outstretched his arm, his palm facing the vehicle as every single bullet abruptly stopped, a few inches in front of his glove. His lips curved into a grin as the projectiles slowly turned around and the demon hunter released his hold.

“Ha, you missed!” the gunner laughed, ready to fire another road.

“Might wanna check again…” Liam smirked.

The gunner blinked, looking back and forth rapidly until his eyes widening, focusing on the numerous bloody wounds on the driver’s chest. The motorcycle swerved madly back and forth until it flipped over several times.

“This is gonna be easier than I thought,” he laughed again.

The Silver Beauty skated up to the starting line and looked around. Everyone here looked a might bit powerful, or at least annoying. It was pure chaos. People using all brands of weapons, mounts and other insane things had Emile cursing and muttering about how she couldn't believe so many freaks were there. Then, there was the signal.

Emile fired up her boosters and shot forwards. Her aerodynamic armor watched the wind brush harmlessly past her as she began to juxtaposed for position. Each step picked up her speed bit by bit as she monitored voltage levels and the like. Everything seemed fine, at least exteriorly, as the purple haired girl fired up her new armor.

The lancer fired up her boosters once more and exploded forwards. She was nearly at max speed for her new armor, and still, she could feel the bursting of cold winds from the high speeds. However, cold was slowly becoming warm as her armor began to heat up. It's a good thing I planned for both such events. If I'm not moving fast enough, my armor is going to cool down and risk frosting over. If I'm pushing my armor too hard, it will heat up and begin to malfunction. I need to find a place between the two.

The roller-battler smiled as she rocketed past some poor saps before she found herself behind something that seemed impassible. A massive elephant like creature had taken up a position in front of her, and the small woman couldn't find a nice opening to sneak through. When you can't find an opening... make one!

The boosters on the end of Emile's skates roared once more as she exploded forwards, her armor becoming red hot for a few seconds as she slashed her spear at an intense speed. As the burning red, armored girl emerged in front of the elephant creature, she slowed herself down a little bit, allowing her armor to cool a bit, and returned to the race. "Take that, douche bags," she muttered as the elephant creature skidded to a stop and crashed into the ground and created an effective roadblock.

"Let's see some of these bastards get past that," Emile told herself proudly with a smile. One down, and probably more from it, and many to go. This was starting out to be a good race.

o=)----------- Meanwhile ------------(=o

As for Zorlo, as he sat on his mount, Gerald the camel, he sat pretty much dead last as the racers exploded off. As fast as everyone had been off, the fencer simply whipped the reins lightly and continued to smile. "Rally ho!" the green haired man yelled as the camel began to move at what, in this race, could only be called a snails pace.

Step by step. Inch by inch. Foot by foot. Slowly, the Aura Master and his animal companion passed the starting line and began their wayward movement. "This is a good pace, Gerald. Don't want to start out too fast, otherwise we might endanger ourselves and/or others that are in this race," Zorlo said with his casual smiled and a slightly laugh.

The camel made whatever noise camels make and spit onto the grass. For now, the two would sit in dead last. After all, it wasn't like the fencer had much else to do for the next three days.

RAIVE ripped up the path, its tires skidded, pelting gravel and dust off to the sides as the vehicle tore around corners and around opponents. People on their fancy rides or weird animals were awestruck as the seemingly simple car ripped right past them, putting all four wheels to the test on off-road as well harsh conditions.

Inside the car, the A.I. was hard at work. The screen flashed continuously with numerous satellite pictures and videos of the area, along with custom-drawn lines showing the course and the line of movement that RAIVE planned to take—all the while weaving between other contestants.

The screen flashed once more, this time, it was accessing the internet just to find a little…something: “Tempest” by Pendulum.

And then it came up behind something it didn’t expect—it was too small to show up on the photos and videos, but it was there nonetheless. The scanner flashed white as the person in silver armour’s reading was taken. It was a girl with a spear, and she was going extremely fast…and the temperature of her boosters were rising to a dangerous level, making the silver turn red hot as she zoomed passed a massive, elephant-like creature.

The creature was taken aback by her sudden appearance, and it skidded to a halt, coming down in such a way so that it would block the road behind. At the very split second that the elephant halted, RAIVE’s body dropped dangerously low to the ground; every opening on its body became covered with nanites, increasing the aerodynamics.

As it blazed just underneath the falling creature, a sleek spoiler was built at the back, cutting through the air and allowing him to blaze past the girl.

ooc: I)ragon11 asked me to join this race, so here I am!

bic:

I.S.A.A.C. stood on the peak of a sandy hill, overlooking the tents containing the thousands of race participants and their vehicles. His black exoskeleton was shiny and smooth, untouched by the dusty sand that filled the air, which simply couldn't get past the thin layer of an electromagnetic field that covered the tall android. Beside the android was a two-wheeled vehicle, similar to a motorcycle, and similar in appearance to the android in material and color. The hydrogen combustion engine was still warm.

Behind ISAAC was a large rock, and hiding behind that rock was a man. ISAAC had noticed the man hiding there about five minutes ago, but he didn't acknowledge him or allow him to know that he had been noticed. The man stealthily began to approach ISAAC from behind, army crawling in the sand. He was surprisingly quite clandestine, and if it weren't for ISAAC's radar and sonar abilities, as well as the fact that the man gave off an extremely large electromagnetic field, ISAAC might not have noticed him until he was close enough for ISAAC to detect the ambient heat he gave off.

ISAAC allowed the man to sneak up behind him, and didn't turn around or move at all. The man, thinking he was unnoticed, jumped up from the ground and shouted. "Zap!" he said, a bolt of lightning passing from his hand into ISAAC's back. The blue bolt hit the android's protective energy field and dissipated on contact, small veins of electricity spreading out from the point of impact and fading away. The android slowly turned around to face the blue haired man, who stood there with an eyebrow raised.

"Zap!" he said again, firing a more powerful bolt of electricity. It shared the same fate as the last, spreading out and disappearing in ISAAC's energy field. "Uh, hi. Name's Zyler."

"Hello," ISAAC said, in a deep male voice. "My name is Isaac."

"Would you, perhaps, be interested in a race? I see you've noticed the competitors down there..." Zyler pointed to the area down below, where the racers were getting prepared.

"A race? Sounds like fun," ISAAC said.

"Good, because now you have no choice! See, I cursed you, so now you have to race. Also, stay on the track, or else you'll DIE!" Zyler bluffed. He then whistled a happy little melody, and a dragon dropped down from the skies. He climbed up onto the dragon, and flew off.

A curse? You can't curse a machine. ISAAC got onto his Tachista motorbike, and made his way down the hill to the tents.

<--//-->

ISAAC stood beside his vehicle, waiting for the race to begin. He took note of the rules, spoken by some human female, and began documenting as many participants as he could lay metaphorical eyes on. As soon as the Sun rose to touch the pillars, the racers sped off in a huge sonic boom, kicking up clouds of dust and sand. As soon as most of the competitors had left the finish line, ISAAC mounted his vehicle, and powered it up. The engine growled as he charged it up, and in a moment it gave off a high-pitched squeal. He turned his head and took one look at the only other racer still behind the finish line; some green-haired man on a camel. ISAAC saluted the man, and then turned to face forward again. Suddenly, the back of the vehicle exploded in a burst of white flames, vitrifying the sand behind it and causing the vehicle to hurdle through the sound barrier.

ISAAC quickly caught up with the rest of the racers, his vehicle roaring over the road, leaving a trail of crystallized sand behind him where the jets of burning hydrogen hit the ground. He pulled up beside another vehicle, some high-tech racing pod. With little effort he hacked into the vehicle's control systems, and cut the ignition. The pod quickly dropped behind the crowd, spinning wildly out of control and rolling on the ground. Several other vehicles mysteriously had some sort of mechanical control malfunction as ISAAC sped up ahead of them, forming a path.

This race would certainly be entertaining.

The sleek motorcycle died suddenly as another two wheeled vehicle sped on past. Roery didn't notice immediately, however, as she couldn't hear the sound of her own bike over the roar of engines and beasts around her. A large tank-like machine ahead of her had died also and she was coming up on it unsuspectingly quickly. A scrap junk car, with plenty of sharp and armored scraps was slowing down next to her, and another large machine was nearly riding her bumper. To her other side stood a constant steam of non-mechanical combatants. Strange how that worked out. Take out the electricity and lines will form.

In any case, Roery was stuck, with no real escape as a tank came barreling down in front of her, as it had crashed suddenly and was literally barreling down in front of her. The entire time, the armored girl had frustratingly been slamming the gas to get her bike to start up again, and finally managed it just in time. The tires tore through the dirt as the female soldier took a hard left, putting the bike on its side as she kicked off the passing ground with all her might and ignited the thrusters on her boots, lifting the motorcycle up and over a large volaceraptor and his rider, completing a full barrel roll before she landed on the other side of the beast rider.

The dino tamer seemed offended by her sudden non-hostile act, and ordered his beast to eat the girl. A large toothy mouth clamped down and Roery was barely able to dodge in time, nearly falling off the left side of her bike.

"It would have been a lot easier to just go through you, you know!" She called as she snapped a gun into her hand and took out the large lizards leg. The beast hit the dirt with a sickening thud and the rider screamed as he was flung from his mount.

Roery groaned as she noticed her next unavoidable obstacle up ahead. An impossibly large elephant was the source of multiple car crashes. Couldn't go around it, couldn't go through it, had to go over it.

The blonde selected her course carefully and stomped the ground, lifting the nose of her bike enough to ramp up the side of a once sleek, now mangled and bloody piece of hardware. Blue fire erupted from the back of the bike as it hit the lip of the elephant beast's stomach, rocketing both girl and machine high into the air.

A rush of adrenalin took over her as the thrill of the race momentary took hold, but it was only fleeting as she remembered that she still had to land the jump. From up so high, she could see multiple airplanes and dragons battling it out in the sky, and an endless see of machines and beasts duking it out below. Bracing herself, the armored girl held close to her bike as she descended back into the throngs of land rovers, firing off her thrusters and her plasma disks in an attempt to slow herself down and clear a landing spot. It didnt work out so well.

It was all a blur. The motorcycle shuttered as it struck something hard, jerked as it sideswiped something organic, flipped completely over at one point, and landed back on its two wheels. Only... everyone in front of Roery seemed to be facing her... or else she was traveling backwards. Quickly gathering her bearings, and accessing her situation, the woman smirked, as she knew that could have gone down much worse.

sliding her armored boot on the ground, the blond quickly reeled her bike around the right way and sped off.

A big and burly fat one entered the large tent. Lex was at his usual post, the nearest bar stool.

"Yer not sposed to be in heere!" The spit on Lex's hair was frothy and red. Fact is Lex had all but awoken on this bar stool, having immidiately broken his chains and then having wandered to the 'willing contestant' tent.

Lex was suddenly very pissed off that he wasn't actually drunk, but had been sedated somehow. Lex's metallic spine was still in place, and he stood up, right under the ugly one's chin. Lex turned and no one was there, and then after a second, the dude came down from the ceiling and went right through three chairs and two tables, feet hanging in the air.

Lex walked outside, exploring his surroundings not-from-the-sky for the first time. He had no idea where he was.

He fumbled around and found his keyring, which of course was broken. Needless to say, the sun came up, and the people were off the starting line for fifteen minutes before Lex remembered something about a race. It was about this time that Lex got a huge burn on the side of his neck, and his whole body was wracked with electricity. Luckily, when Lex's heart stopped, that was the sure backup for the mecha suit to go into auotpilot.

Lex woke up an hour later just on the track side of the starting line. The track went east, so naturally he went north east. He got antoher good zap about twenty minutes later, but this time, stim pacs were hooked right to his spine, so to his shagrin, he stayed conscious through all the awesome excruciating pain. Then he was through it.

As luck would have it, he was back on the track, on another part of the track that looped back after nearly a half hour. He lazed in the air for a while, going along whatever route seemed right to him in this horribly unjust world of getting randomly shocked for no apparent reason. When the shock came again because he had drifted off the track, he turned on the afterburners and backed up before the shock got to the 'really good part.'

Nobody had ever told Lex about the properties of this curse, at least not more than in passing.

After biting into his finger till it started to bleed all over the controls, and then spending the time to clean up THAT mess, Lex flicked on his emp detection equipment. Sure enough, the border of the track lit up like a big purple dinosaur. Lex tried to make sense of what he was seeing till he realized it followed the contour of a canyon, and that this canyon looked like the neck and open maw of a large reptile, and that this particular 'magical field' was purple.

Lex started along it, only just long enough to realize he was going the wrong way. An hour further and Lex finally came into view of the contestants. the ground traffic was amuzing enough to follow, but the flying traffic was even more funny. Flying creatures following right along the lines of this track. The track was particularly winding and trecherous, and flying over the clifftops to get ahead was sooo obvious in Lex's mind that he thought he might be in competition with some lower life forms.

And then he got shocked again

A half dead, very grumpy Lex was suddenly in the lead by about a half an hour, luckily he'd had the forthwithitude to put the mecha suit on autopilot, to follow the track to the very line, before he had a nice nap of sweet unconsciousness.

The race started at a devastating speed. However derrick was not a part of the cluster F—k that was the opening seconds. At least one third of the vehicles crashed getting out of the starting gate so Derrick simply waited, knowing he could make up time easily later, and burst forward well after the chaos had taken over the course.

Driving with one hand on the wheel, and the other drinking a cup of coffee, the perfect Assassin felt perfectly at ease as gun shots and explosions where going off all around him at the start of the race. Surprisingly enough he even managed not to spill even a drop of coffee. That was until a brute on a Harley slammed into his side, spilling a single drop onto his white pants.

“Ya wanna rumble punk ass,” The Dirty, hairy and smelly bike said, “Come on Pretty boy, what’cha gunna do,” Without even blinking as the two speed at insane seeds down the highway derrick casually tossed his scalding hot coffee at the man’s face to a satisfying scream of agony. The man Scratched at his face, as tears rolled down it, trying to get his vision back. As luck would have it he even managed not to crash as derrick watched on completely unresponsive.

When the man’s vision returned, he turned his beat red face to Derrick’s, only to see the blond haired man was now looking at the road ahead…his gun however was point at the man’s burnt face, “Goodnight,” Another shot rang into the din getting little response from the others who where fighting to survive, not even as the brainless corpse flew backwards down the highway did people stop to notice, other than one car that swerved to avoid him and ran itself down a hill.

As the road twisted and turned in an almost predictable fashion, derrick almost too casually for the situation searched for a weapon in the back seat of his car, turning back to the wheel with the rather large weapon in hand he hoisted the RPG onto his shoulder looking forward. He was far from the head of the pack, but not lagging behind either, in the middle as it where. So judging the people in front of him as greater adversaries he fired the rocket forward.

The missile whirled through the air, alarming all who it passed. As the road went forward it came to a section with large cliffs on either side. That was the target, the rocketed blasted into the canyon wall sending debris and rubble to over the road completely. Cars crashed and exploded as they slammed into the roadblock, Derrick however was completely unnerved, ridding up a steep hill he drove atop the right cliff looking down at the people who managed to beat luck and get through the debris before it could crush them; They where his next targets. Dropping his rocket launcher and arming himself with two machine guns, he took aim and fired without a hint of emotion.

OoC: DOne.

OoC: Yay, I'm posting. :3

Bic:

To Meghana flying meant entering a different world, separated entirely from the crowds of the flying-impaired. But, in this race, there was no line dividing the two worlds. They collided with a reckless abandon that sent the faerie's heart pounding faster than ever.

Hovering above the ground racers, and slightly below the other air racers, Meghana knew exactly what to expect this time. But, after the sonic boom had sent her dragon into a frenzy of flying, her heart began to palpitate erratically once more.

After a few seconds of random swerving in the sky, the illusionist got a hold of herself and her dragon. She distractedly patted it, head high to observe the broken boundaries of these two intertwined plots of land and air.

The race had barely begun and yet vehicles were already attempting to run each other over, and various projectiles already crossed a pattern into the landscape. Fully absorbed into the story unfolding beneath her, she was oblivious to the chaos ensuing around her. It wasn't until her dragon roared in displeasure that she bothered to look up.

Only to narrowly redirect Mindgleam out of a fireball's path. Her leg could feel the lingering heat in the air. Vigilant for the threat of fireballs from the same direction, she leaned forward on Mindgleam, redirecting its flight into a smooth curve. Based on previous experience in the race she'd already formulated a rough idea: No matter how much time you wasted, fighting was the one way to ensure survival.

Having done a complete 360, Meghana was now facing her enemy. On top of what could only be a wind current, sat an elderly woman. An elementalist, thought Meghana. Meeting the crone's eyes, she saw they were an odd light gray color. What an absolutely brilliant character!

Before Meghana could begin to spew thoughts on character development and possible alternate plots, an ice shard flew past her head. Snap out of it! She chided herself for her silly, and, in this case, dangerous habit. Immediately her hand flew to the pack on her back. She began to blindly grope around as she dodged more ice shards. Hearing screams from below, she noticed in a quick glance that the shards had found other, less aware targets.

But, once again, that had become an entirely separate world. The one she was in currently revolved entirely around her survival. With a relieved sigh she found what she'd been looking for. Pulling out a small length of thread, she felt her own magic surging through her, stringing together random phrases and thoughts that would help.

Then, when she was satisfied, the thoughts melted the string in her hand to something more useful. A long steel net sat in her hands, incredibly flexible, but equally strong. She quickly pressed it to her side and out of her opponent's view. Now to use it.

Diving and weaving out of the path of fire, ice, and lightening alike, she finally secured a position near the old woman. In a quick sweep, she threw the net on her, then instructed Mindgleam to throw the woman down in the confusion.

It was a very fast operation. The old woman became entangled into the net so thoroughly that her focus began to waver, her air current faltering. Taking that chance, Mindgleam barreled into her, its entire body weight forcing the woman down. Within seconds they had collided into the ground, Meghana panting heavily due to the sheer excitement that had left her breathless. With a single thought, she ordered the dragon back into the air to escape land fighting and the motionless form of the old woman.

Once back in the air, Meghana's breathing slowed again, and she looked around her, noticing several other opponents she had failed to see before. Not again, she thought. Mindgleam flew into a dense cloud at her orders. It was worth getting soaked to miss another fight. It was something savage that ran these games. Something that both thrilled and frightened the illusionist.

A wonderfully exciting story, but a horror to be in...

ISAAC blasted down the race track, mechanical racers dropping like flies around him. A good number of the racers were completely organic, and these he swerved around, smacking any who got close enough with the flat end of his arm blade. At speeds exceeding that of sound, the blow was enough to send a racer riding a mythically large wolf spinning unconsciously through the air. The wolf tried to slow down and pick up its rider, but several other racers sped right on through the wolf, trampling it into the dust of the road.

At about this time, ISAAC came across a very large tank. The thick steel armor covering the tank meant that ISAAC had to get a little closer to get a good signal through the tank and hack into its control mechanisms, but it was certainly worth it seeing the tank barrel roll into several other competitors, who were unlucky enough to be chasing behind it. Some racers managed to fly over the tank, but several of them were crushed as the massive metallic behemoth tumbled down the road, out of control.

Ahead, ISAAC spotted a large organic road block. Some inexplicably large leviathan of a pachyderm had been incapacitated in the middle of the race track. It was wedged between two cliffs in a narrow part of the road, and several racers both mechanical and otherwise, were crashing into each other as they got stuck behind the block. ISAAC pushed his way through the thick traffic stuck behind the elephant, and noticed he was coming up on the creature spectacularly fast. Luckily, ISAAC's mind worked even faster, at about the speed of light to be accurate. He realized one thing about the road block: he couldn't go around it, and he couldn't go over it, so he had to go through it.

ISAAC removed his hands from the handlebars of his motorcycle. Riding his bike with no handlebars, he powered up a pair of fuel cells in his plasma arm weapons. Specifically, a pair of volatile red plasma cells. As he approached the road block at the speed of sound, he pointed his arms forward and blasted the elephant with a cannon spray of red plasma. The weaponized blast exploded through the creature, creating a hole just large enough for ISAAC to speed his motorbike through. Right as he went through he sent another plasma blast behind him, kicking up sand into the opening in the creature. The heat from his hydrogen combustion engine instantly vitrified the sand, creating a thick glass shell over the hole in the elephant. He heard the glass shatter almost instantly as someone rocketed through the opening, the glass sending them out of control.

ISAAC liked to keep his eyes on the road ahead, but he couldn't help but glance back as he heard a large explosion. Something, perhaps a rocket or a grenade, had caused a part of the cliffside where the pachyderm was wedged to collapse over the roadway. Luckily for ISAAC, he'd already made it past that point, but a lot of other racers were either crushed under the rubble or stuck on the road behind it, as if the elephantine road block wasn't enough trouble. ISAAC continued to swerve around the other racers around him, but being closer to the head of the pack meant that there were significantly less of them, at least on the ground. The sky above was filled with chaos as all the flying racers fought for the lead. Flying was certainly an advantage worth having, as road blocks meant nothing and speed was easier to obtain. Quite often, a flying racer would drop down to the road as someone else took them out. At one point, a decimated dragon dropped onto the road and collided with a race car, crushing it into scrap metal.

Suddenly, from behind, ISAAC was splattered with a spray of bullets. The bullets glanced off his shielding electromagnetic field, doing no immediate damage but weakening the field with every hit. He glanced behind and above him, where he had determined the gunfire originated, seeing a man driving a car upon the canyon surrounding the racetrack. He was firing a pair of machine guns down at the racers ahead. A racer riding a rocket powered cheetah (whose rockets had somehow failed a minute ago) suddenly fell into a breakneck roll in the sand as the machine gun spray washed over him. ISAAC switched one of his weapons to a violet plasma cell, and took aim at the cliffside gunner. His vision zoomed in and narrowed down as he prepared to snipe the man. He could easily concentrate on two or more things at once, and his Tachista motorcycle, guided by advanced radar and sonar mechanisms, basically drove itself down the road as ISAAC was occupied. A couple shots of plasma took out the machine guns, and then a couple more took care of the vehicle's tires. He decided to leave the man's fate to his ability to keep control driving hundreds of miles per hour on the top of a cliff with no tires.

Suffice it to say, ISAAC didn't think the racer had much hope, and turned back to the racetrack.

With a spray of Bullets At least a half dozen racers where completely decimated. Turning into nothing but a bloodstain on the highway; all without even the slightest reaction on the face of the assassin. It was just a part of the game he was playing, blood was just a way of letting him know he was winning. Stopping to reload his weapon for just a second he felt an intense heat, and saw one of his machine guns fly backwards dancing in the dust behind him.

Another shot blasted his second gun off, but Derrick quick reaction managed to catch it before it flew off, knowing the value of such a weapon in such a place; unfortunately that action allowed the gunner to shot two of his tires making driving a hazard. Looking at his ammunition, Derrick realized he only had one rocket left, as the car steadily lost control. With one hand on the wheel trying to stay stead, and the other on his RPG he calculated the trajectory of his rocket in relation to his target-which of course the man who was firing at him- Shooting ahead under the assumption that the man would be moving in a straight line he predicted that the rocket and man would cross paths in a fiery explosion.

As the rocket propelled forward so did the car, the momentum of the rocket threw his car off balance Via Newton’s laws of Equal and opposite reactions. The car twisted and flew off the clip in a nosedive towards the ground and the other racers. Very casually as the car fell Derrick picked up some ammunition and stood in his seat. Ignoring the explosion below.

Looking back he saw what appeared to be a dragon flying behind him. With slow precise movements he pushed himself off of the fall car and through the air, landing on the sturdy neck of the large red beast, staring a well armoured Knight in the eye’s, “Who Are—“ The Night started in it’s booming voice before derrick cut him off with a shot gun blast to his breast plate, “bastard,” The Large –at least seven foot- knight said rising out of his sadly and onto the thin back of the dragon, “Have At you,”

Before Derrick could get another shot out, one of the knights two bastard’s swords cut through the weapon, sending it’s pieces into the fast moving ground far-far below. Jumping back onto the top of the beast’s Head The Assassin dodged another blow, and released his hidden sword from his arm, “What Kind of Sorcery is this?” The man said igniting not even a look from derrick that silently and deadly charged forward. Blocking an Attack from his right with his blade, he quickly ducked as the sword from his left sliced.

The Strange knight tried to use his two blades to cut off Derrick at the knees, but the swift man simply jumped onto the blades pinning them to the ground, then with an acrobatic like move jump and spun so he was facing the back of his opponent, sword at the knights neck. In one movement it was all done, and the nearly decapitated body of the knight fell into the speeding track below.

Casually taking the reins back, he got control of the beast, then looked down for the man who had attacked him earlier, taking his last machine gun in hand.

OoC: High Speed Sword Fight on top of A Dragon just seemed awesome to me.

As ISAAC sped down the highway, dodging a winged body falling from the sky above, he noticed a quickly moving projectile behind him on his radar sensors. He instantly and precisely calculated the speed, trajectory, and size of the object, and adjusted his movements to avoid it. The object flew right past ISAAC, barely missing him, and he identified it as a rocket-propelled grenade. The machine-gun wielding race car driver he'd fired at must have launched the grenade before his vehicle tumbled off the canyon. The grenade hit the ground, exploding in a large fireball of intense heat. At this point, ISAAC's evasion techniques managed to get him far enough away that only the heat washed over ISAAC, and the explosive pressure missed him and did no damage.

ISAAC was almost impressed. The grenade had been very accurately aimed at a target moving faster than sound for someone driving hundreds of miles per hour on the top of a cliff while driving a vehicle with only two tires. Had ISAAC not noticed the grenade, it would certainly have hit him, and he had no doubt that the explosion would have been enough to obliterate ISAAC and his motorcycle. The near miss didn't faze ISAAC though. For one thing, even if this android and its vehicle had been destroyed, ISAAC was far more than just machinery. For another thing, while ISAAC understood human emotion very well, he did not possess any, as no computer could have true emotions. Fear was something that ISAAC understood and had much knowledge on, but did not himself possess.

Suddenly, the body of an armored man fell onto the track ahead. Upon impact, the warrior's head separated from his body (most likely having been mostly cut through by something else) and flew towards ISAAC. Such an impact at the supersonic speeds would be devastating, and ISAAC managed to swerve and avoid the flying cranium. The body he couldn't avoid at the same time, and ran directly over it. More damage was done to the fallen knight than to ISAAC's bike, which was propelled into the air for a good three and a half seconds before landing safely back on the sandy road.

ISAAC was getting quite used to the rain of bodies and other objects (such as the shrapnel from some previously airborne racing machine that was hailing from the heavens at the moment) by this time. He was also getting used to dodging projectiles directly aimed at him. At the moment, his radar warned him of some very quick, very small objects heading right for him. Bullets. Another wave of bullets splashed against ISAAC's back, falling from somewhere up above and behind him. A quick glance behind him (ISAAC could turn the android's head around 360 degrees if he had too) answered his suspicions. It was indeed the racer who had been shooting at him earlier, and whom he had driven off the canyon wall. Apparently he was quite skilled and managed to avoid falling off the cliff with his vehicle, and also managed to commandeer another ride (ISAAC wondered if perhaps the dragon he was now racing upon was obtained from the knight he'd dodged earlier, but there was no way to be sure.) He also apparently had a lot of firearms, or else ISAAC's plasma shots hadn't done as much damage to the machine guns he fired at earlier as he had hoped they would.

Another stream of bullets moved towards ISAAC, and there wasn't much he could do to avoid them. Moving supersonically on a narrow racetrack left little capability for agilely dodging bullets. ISAAC could just kill the dragon, he presumed, but the man would probably survive that and steal another ride if past actions were to be trusted. Instead, ISAAC decided he would take on the man directly. He powered up his plasma propulsor jetpack, and with a spray of white heat left his motorcycle on the ground as he flew into the air. The cycle was still fully under ISAAC's control; he didn't need the android riding it for anything other than more sensory capability and extra weaponry. The Tachista charged up its laser blasters and primed its plasma engine, ready to take out anything that came its way as it continued the race alone.

Meanwhile, ISAAC flew up to the dragon flying overhead, extending his razor sharp arm blades. A spew of flames from the dragon's mouth washed over him, but the heat did no damage, ISAAC's electromagnetic field generator refracting or absorbing the energy based attack. ISAAC mounted the dragon's head, keeping his propulsor primed and ready, but inactive (he might need to use the jetpack in an moment's notice if he found himself falling off the beast.) The machine-gun wielding, dragon-riding assassin was in the saddle on the creature's back, holding the reins in one hand and his weapon in the other. He was dressed in a suit completely of white, contrasting with ISAAC's pitch black chassis. He was faster than ISAAC had expected, and a spray of bullets found it's way towards ISAAC's chest before he could respond and dodge (and on the head of the dragon, there wasn't enough room to dodge anyway.) At such close range, the protective electromagnetic field failed after reflecting the first few bullets, and the rest of them punctured through ISAAC's plastic exoskeleton, flying completely through him. They luckily didn't damage ISAAC's inner workings, which were made mostly of strong and light titanium alloys. Quick as light, a burst of red plasma blasted the machine gun out of the assassin's hand, and the weapon fell to the ground below. Most of it was melted by the superheated plasma before it even hit the road, and the remains rolled wildly along the ground, sending drops of molten metal and liquefied sand into the face of another racer, causing him to spin out and fall off the edge of the track (which at this leg of the race, was a fall of hundreds of feet.)

ISAAC used precise calculations and movements to keep his balance on the volatile reptile, and dashed down the neck of the beast, his bright golden swords extended and ready. The assassin dropped the reins, leaving the dragon to fly itself (which was well enough, it seemed to know the way) and extended a silver blade from his own arm. The assassin swiftly dodged to the right and slashed his blade towards ISAAC's head, but ISAAC was just as swift and brought his left arm blade up to parry the blow. At the same time, his right arm came up in a streak of gold, nearly breaking the sound barrier all by itself, and rushed toward the assassin. He managed to parry the blade and kick ISAAC in his bullet punctured chest. A sudden discharge of electricity was released into the assassin as he made contact with ISAAC's electromagnetic energy shield, and ISAAC managed to swipe his leg under the shocked assassin's other leg, the one not outstretched in a kick, knocking him down. He fell off the dragon, and for a moment ISAAC thought the battle was through.

But only for a moment. The assassin had caught one of the dragon's feet, and pulled himself back up the other side of the dragon, behind ISAAC. His sonar sense quickly told him of the movements behind him, and he was able to parry another blow from the assassin's sword without even turning his head. He spun around and brought the point of his other sword as quickly as he could towards the superhuman's stomach. The assassin twisted and was able to avoid the sword. Using his momentum, he aimed another strike of his sword at ISAAC's back.

ISAAC leapt into the air and spun in a backwards somersault to avoid the blade, landing on the dragon's back only a few feet away from the superhuman assassin. Quickly he lunged forward, ready with another strike from his swords. . .

OoC: High speed sword fight on top of a dragon? Sounds pretty awesome to me too, actually.