KoAII Round 2: Hellfighter 17 vs Jackie Chun

[Alura]

Scenerio - In the far off future, racing has been revolutionized and is the most popular sport is the country.

Assignment - Roleplay first person behind an announcer for a championship race, going over the race itself behind him/her.

Rules - Obviously, the race must be futuristic

Five days

[Alura]

HELLFIGHTER 17

"Can yea make this quick, kid," said Mr. Gallapher, walking down the caesium-lighted hallway.

"Sure," piped up the boy. He could not have been anymore than twenty years of age, less than a third of mine; he seemed like a cocky son of a bitch, too. "You've been a sports announcer for over forty years, sir, and you started out as a step-in during that, uhh, Maydona 200, isn't that right?"

"It was the Daytona 500," idiot, "and yes, I did. I had recently been hired as just some gopher, but they needed [i]anybody who was not already seriously at work."

"And why did that become your big break?"

"Because of a horrifying incident." I paused, recollecting the crash. "A man died, who was bound to win, and my coverage of it was phenomenal. The young boy was Clarck McKay, may he rest in peace, and he had a bright future for himself, but that's all gone, and I made a profit out of it."

I started walking again, trying to ignore the reporter."How do you think racing has changed since 2009, when that happened?"

"No more questions, I have a job to do." With that I closed my door behind me and I swear I heard that boy walk right into that door there. There was only one other person in the room, my co-announcer. the race wouldn't start for two hours, but we always liked to get into the feel of the place beforehand. "I guess you beat me, Sarah," I said with a hearty smile. I had worked on her on numerous- uhh, that is, I worked with her on numerous occasions in the past twenty years. We've known each other in times when we were getting married, had children, went to funerals, to weddings - got divorced - but we never brought none of it up, yet we always somehow knew the events of the other, sometimes even being the cause of some of the events.

"John! Yes, you are late," she said, standing up. She smiled at me, and, as always, her paling teeth glared at me, but I only reinforced my pearly whites. She began to walk towards me, with a graceful stride, but her hand shook mildly, the veins being deadly apparent.

"I am sorry to keep you waiting," I said as I grabbed her hand and kissed right above her wrist gently. The giggle that she let out was all that I needed to give me my drive for the day.

"You can make it up to me by helping me find something I lost in the janitor's closet."

"It'd be my honour," I said, walking beside her.

***

"And here car 23 is approaching the second loop of the sixtieth lap, with only thirty -five to go!" I shouted, leaning into the microphone.

"97 is approaching 23, with all three boosters goin'. There appears to be a gap between these leading two and the rest of the twenty-eight racers." I could see that car 42, in eleventh place, was having trouble; its flame was turning from the normal, regulation blue to green, which could mean any number of things. If that didn't get fixed, the officials would be sure to pull them out of the race, but I decided to not point it out. Sarah looked over me and I could see the concern on her face, and I only looked back at her with the same expression.

"Don't worry," I said patting her hand as I covered the microphone with my other.

She shivered a bit at the touch, and took away her hand to grasp harder onto her microphone. "The trailin' four are just now entering the magnetic tube on lap fifty-nine." The "magnetic tube," as Sarah calls it, was added back in '47. It was a brilliant addition, struck up by an advent in those atom smasher thingies. In the dead centre of the "tube," one would be able to continue going on straight, but if they were off by even a few metres, their cars would be pulled to one side or the other. If this happened soon enough, they would pulled to alternate ways which would reconnect with the track later on, but it usually cost drivers a good two seconds, which, when traveling at speeds at around Mach two, could be everything.

There was a built in safety feature so that they wouldn't get caught between two of the ways and their car divide in two. The magnetic pull changed at some point down the "tube," so that they would either be heading for one of the alternatives or the main track. If some fool-hardy boy tried to be brave and get back onto the main track after this, though, the magnetic pull was strong enough on the alternative paths to keep him goin' on straight; it was my favourite part of any lap, and I was one of the people to make sure that it received global usage.

"It looks like 36 is stretching gap between it and eleventh place. And it looks like eleventh is now twelfth." Sarah looked back at me after having said that, and I could see it in the corner of my eye a hint of her eyes starting to mist. She had encountered a similar circumstance during her second year as my first day,a nd she knew what had happened to me on that fateful day, but I couldn't bear to look over.

"97 just passed 32 as both cars finished their sixty-second lap!" The two cars were still deeply ahead of the rest and were only further spreading themselves. "Two of the trailing four appeared to have been caught into the alternative paths down the 'magnetic tube,' " I said, taunting Sarah. "God, I love that," I whispered into the microphone, gettin' smiles from across the stands. The main body of the racers were entering the wind tunnel of lap sixty-one, which was one of the greatest challenges to see who was better than who. The drivers would be entered into a tunnel that was inclined greatly to the rest of the path, and once they reached an altitude of four miles, it sharply turned them back down, with the help of those beautiful magnets. Due to some mumbo jumbo from that Einstein fella, they are "freely falling," which can cause them to totally lose control over what they are doing, even with the boosters. But the air causes some resistance, although little compared to how much they are accelerating, which is all that allows for control, which is the cause for the tunnel's name.

As soon as they exit they need to gain control and fast. There are rarely accidents, since we also used dem magnets to control and stop cars once they got too close to the edges immediately after the tunnel. Of course, the whole track wasn't suited like this, since those magnets cost a lotta money, which means that on an off-chance someone might take too long to gain control and crash, but this has only happened three times in the thirty-two years that it has been implemented. "It looks like cars 50, 69, 73, and 12 all got stuck by the wind tunnel and are now losing a lot of ground," I said, smiling as I pictured them smashing their hands on their steering wheels.

Sarah immediately broke in afterwards: "97 and 32 just completed lap sixty-two, with 97 breaking the record for fastest lap here."


"And it looks like some of the cars in the lower teens place are not entering the wind tunnel, trying to lap some of the others," I said, keeping a careful eye on 42, with its flame turning a deeper green. I could tell that the officials were telling his crew to exit the race, but it would have to wait until he got out of the wind tunnel - nothin' could happen to him in there, anyway, unless he went suicidal. "And here they exit, and it looks like forty-two and 23 were the only caught by the wind tunne-" I shot up on my seat, still leaning into the microphone. "It looks like 42 is having trouble regaining con- Clarck!"

[Alura]

JACKIE CHUN

The desert. Probably one of the worst places a man can be, especially during the summer. The heat is absolutely unbearable, even in shade, and crowded places usually reak of human
sweat. You probably wonder then what I was doing in the Chinese part of the Gobi desert on that eventfull saturday. Well, for fairness sake, you should also ask yourself what was a
crowd of 250,000 people doing there...and the awnser is simple...

The Gobi desert was the location of the very first levitation car race in history which was the first race of the LCRA, that`s Leviation Car Racing Association, championship. Thousands
upon thousands of people stormed to this god-forsaken part of the world to see a race of veichles which represented the latest hit among the international populace. People were thrilled
to see semi-flying cars in action. Naturally, this brought the interest of many investors due to the possibility of large profit. The greatest among these were the Chinese whos economic
development had brought them big money, at the expense of its generally poor populace, and who wanted more. And they were willing to go a great length to get it. Dozens of elevators
lead people up on the stands placed high in the air and supported by long titan supporters. Each of them were handed with special binoculars which they would use to follow the race
down under. Of course, this meant that ticket prices were sky high, but as with all things people were stupid enough to pay for it.

But their brainwashment countinued even at the race. The bleachers were linked on these link were placed large liquid crystal screens from which commercials of the various sponsors were
shown. It was quite ironic to watch this high-elevation world when down on the ground numerous maintainance crews worked in their garages to prepare the cars for the competition.

I had the luxury to watch this irony. The tallest object of them all was the announcement tower which was placed in the middle of this enormous playground and from which the announcer
and his crew had the view of the entire track. That announcer was me. And I was one of the best of the trade. People think that an announcers job is simple, that all he preety much has to
do is tell what person is in which place. Well, trust me when I say you should ignore such mindless idiots. The announcer is the composer of peoples mood. Allthough his task is also to
follow the race, his primary goal is to make the people enjoy it. It is his rethorics which effect wether the people will leave the race happy and pleased, thus wanting to return to see it
another time. That is also the reason why the LCRA came into contact with me. By then, I was already an old dog in the job as I previously commented more "primitive" kinds of races for
years. I was reluctant to take the offer at first. I already had a quite comfortable life and I was prepared to enter retirement. But hey, 100,000$ is an offer you can`t refuse. Besides,
pention has become almost worthless and it is always good to have a good reserve.

So there I was on top of the announcment tower, wearing a white shirt and fancing a pair of sunglasses. I often glanced at my microphone. Even though most things changed dramaticlly
in short time, the microphone remained preety much the same as it always was. Of course, the power of speakers has been increased and microphones allowed a quality transfer of sound.
As it was my style, the microphone twisted in my hand like a basket ball before I took a firm hold of it and brought it to my mouth. I still remember my words quite clearly.

"Ladiiies and gentleman, boys and girls, people of all ages....welcome to the first levitation car race in history! You are about to become a part of one of the most important events in the
21st century! A competition, full of originality and excitement awaits. So what do you say...shall we get this race starteeeeeeed?"

As I spoke the last words, the crowd yelled in appeasement. I couldn`t help but smile as thousands of people were roused by my "magical" voice. Down below, the situation was clearing
and the wheelless cars were hoovering out on the designated path and at the starting line. They kept themselves just above ground as their engines, who quite resembled those of
small jets, seemed to shimmer. I countinued my speach in order to raise the tension.

"Allthough the rules of the competition are simple, there is more to this sport then meets the eye. Basicly, this track is divided on three parts. The first part is the regular racing part with it`s
twists and turns. The second Drift part is even more trickier. The racers are going to have to manouver among dangerous rocks which represent certain doom for any reckless driver. And
the last, but not least, is the Drag part. On this long, straight path the controlers of the flying machines are going to push their engines to the extreme. The limits of their endurance are
going to be tested as they will speed to reach the finish line."

The cars positioned themselves and a person nearby gave me a hand signal. This told me that the race was about to begin. I concluded my introduction.

"Ladies and gentleman, here is the moment you`ve been waiting for! In mere seconds, the most historical race is about to begin!"

The tension raised even further as the screens showing the commericals changed. Numbers, counting down the last seconds, appeared. After one, the sign "GO!" showed and the
leviating cars began competing with suprising speed. The crowd watched with intensity the struggle down below and my voice helped them keep that mood at all times. The race itself
proved to be quite dangerous. Already in the first part, two cars fell to submission due to engine failure. This didn`t shock me as the engines were afterall a innovation in the racing
industry. Still, the disqualified drivers didn`t look all too pleased with it.

But they got off lightly compared to the accidents that happened next in the Drift part. The speed of the veichles was incredible and something which several competitors couldn`t cope
with. Fire-fighters and medics had to immediatly step on the scene as several cars hit the rocks and crashed to the sandy ground. Had they flown at higher elevations they would have
surely gotten killed. But even as such, the consenquences weren`t always pleasant and one of the racers was heavily injured. To your probable disgust, I had to comfort the crowd
and turn its attention on the competitors that countinued the race. I was lucky that there was no mortal casualties which made my job easy. I was always dreaded when I though of the
reports of the 1955 Le Mans race where a car hit a dirt bank, flew in mid-air, dissintergrated there and killed 82 spectators and injured over 100 more. The though of being a announcer
during that time always haunted me.

In any case, allthough nobody died in the Gobi race, the consenquences were still bad and only two cars reached the third part of the race. The two leviation veichles of red and green
colour obviously speeded up. The two drivers must have pushed the pedal to the metal as they travelled in enormous speeds. The left engine of the green levitation car even began to
burn. But this didn`t stop the green racer and he pushed on. His determination proved decisive as he overspeed his opponent and crossed the finish line first. As the cars quickly came to
a halt and dropped to the ground, one of the fire-fighters hastened to put out the new flame. I sang praises to the winner as the racer raised his hands in overjoyment. The thrill of the
people was evident from the great sounds coming from them. They were all too pleased with the event.

After the usual cup handling and champagne spilling, to which I contributed with all kinds of comments, my assistant signalled me that I had to end it. I spoke my final words.

"Well folks, the Gobi race has unfortunately come to an end. But we hope you have enjoyed this race as much as we have. We wish the injured racers fast and full
recovery and we congratulate to the winners. As for you, ladies and gentleman, thank you for your participation and have a nice day."

With the last cheer from the colourful bunch on the stands, I turned off the microphone. After giving it one more look, I placed it on the nearby desk and turned my back to it for good.

[Alura]

HELLFIGHTER 17

OVER

JACKIE CHUN

[Hellfighter 17]

Nice job, Jackie. I really like the narrative voice, but you seemed to rush the last half of it. Giving some more in-depth look into the race itself an personalizing it more so that readers could relalyc onnect with it would have been better.

[Tamsin]

Damn, I was so close....Ah well, you beat me fair and square.

And yes, I did rush the latter part, beacuse I had been working for over 2 hours on the first part and I was under time pressure (I had already crossed the dead-line by that time). I should have known I would lose on the account of bad race representation.

In any case, it was a good match. Hope we have at it again sometime. Good luck with the rest of the competition.