Chapter 1: Beginnings

Our story begins with an 18 year old boy, Cyrus Kyoto, one of the youngest living Runners on Gaia. Two years have past since Cyrus gained entrance to the world of Velocity Runners, he’s steadily gained in skill, winning and losing like a normal competitor would. That will all change, as a fateful encounter will try and break his spirit.

It was a very sunny afternoon; the current race was between a class-B racer by the name of Simon Siner, a professional racer who’s been in it for most of his life here on Gaia, and Class-B racer Mark Sampson. It’s the middle of lap four; Simon is in the lead by three minutes while Sampson continues to try and pass him. As the both came around the mega loop, it had seemed the Sampson vanished, but when the cameras replayed the stunt, it showed him half way up as he dropped off and landed on the other side. The crowds cheered for him as he quickly took the lead. Siner had gotten a bit ticked off, but it was a respectable move. Cyrus, who was sitting in the stands a mile away, had a small camera bot following the racers every move. Some of the people behind him used it to an advantage. Seeing as Cyrus had the best camera views and angles.

Both racers passed the finish line, which began the third lap. The crowds cheering got louder as the announcement guy broadcasted the action, “This is simply stunning, Siner has passed Sampson with flying colors, will Sampson be able to recover?” The announcement guy said.

Sampson had yet again been passed up by Siner. Cyrus was amazed that Sampson was passed up, and yet, figured it would happen seeing as Sampson was an idiot from the get-go. Cyrus watched as the same maneuvers were pulled, his camera bot continued to follow them, even though they were at least 14 Gs. The race was going smoothly; all was fine until a stupid move would put Sampson in the emergency room. Sampson tried to pull the same stunt on the mega loop, but when his VRs foot slipped, he went flying into a gas tank, but didn’t explode due to being somewhat empty, that sent the whole crowd into a panic. Cyrus rushed over, the Fire Drones scrambling to put out the blaze.

Cyrus and a friend were with a few civilians who just couldn’t help but watch. A few of the civilians kept going on with negative words a man called out, “There! I think he’s alive!” The man called out.

Cyrus rushed over to see if Sampson was alright. His right arm was broken and his right leg was fractured. “Hey! Over here, I need a paramedic fast!” Cyrus called out.

It didn’t take long for a medical droid to show up. The droid lifted Sampson up, as he gave a good scream, telling everyone that he was indeed alive. Before the Droid floated away Cyrus wanted to say something. “That was some sweet racing out there today. To bad you were forced to forfeit.” Cyrus said.

Sampson could barely get up so he just tilted his head a bit, “I’ll get him next time. Please tell Siner that once I’m out, I want that re-match.” With that, Sampson was taken away to get patched up. Cyrus just stood there, watching the medical droid float away.

Cyrus turned away and walked over to the hangar where Siner was. “Siner!” Cyrus called out. Cyrus walked into the hangar where Siner was doing some quick fix ups on his VR.

“That’s me, what do you want kid. I busy.” Siner was kind of a jerk too at times, but if you knew him, then you wouldn’t have to care about that. Siner pulled himself from under his VR; He had been working on it the whole time after he reached the hangar. Siner was covered in oil, and had the smell of burnt metal on him. “What do want?”

“The names Cyrus Kyoto, I’m that kid racer everyone talks about.” Cyrus walked up; his cheek had a small beat of sweat slid down it.

“I know who you are. Look, if you don’t have anything to say then beat it.” Simon said. He took the towel he had and tossed it over his shoulder.

Cyrus gulped a bit; it was his first time being face to face with Siner. “I have a message from Sampson. He said that once he got out of the hospital, that you better be ready, as he wants a re-match the first chance he gets.” Cyrus said.

Simon smirked a bit, looked Cyrus dead in the eyes and said, “Tell him I gladly accept his challenge, only if he can get some better racing skills, then I’ll race him.” With that, Simon walked back to his VR and went right back to work.

Cyrus walked out of the Hangar and straight to his car. His girlfriend, Linda, had been waiting for him. Cyrus looked at her for a brief second and then went straight into the car. She got in with him and they drove off to a small restaurant on the east side of town. It had been a quiet car ride most of the way, till Linda brought up the subject, “Are you ever going to stop this. You seem to forget that your still young, please don’t race any more.” Linda said as her face expression went from quiet and mindful to sad and worried.

“I told you this before. I’m not a kid any more. I can do this.” Cyrus commented

“But what about your life, are you just going to throw it away and end up like that man.” Linda began to get loud, Civilians could even here her through the car. “Why do you continue to enter these meaningless races?”

“Cause it’s what I want to do. This is something I’ve chosen on my own. Why can’t you accept that?” Cyrus said, trying to keep from doing something drastic.

It was 10:30 at night and they had finally driven up to the parking lot of the restaurant they were going to. It was a quaint little restaurant, the food was good and the prices weren’t all that bad. Cyrus parked the car fairly close to the building and they went in. “come on now. Let’s just settle down and have a nice dinner okay?” Cyrus was trying to liven up the situation. As they walked in, a door man opened the door for them and they walked in. Cyrus had made a reservation earlier, so the lady at the podium quickly identified Cyrus and a waiter showed Cyrus and Linda to their table, along with two menus.

“Well, this seems like a nice selection, Hmm…what to get.” Cyrus looked at the large menu and decided, “A good sized T-bone please.” Cyrus said to the waiter, and then Linda made her order. “I’ll have one too I guess, not so large though.” Linda said, trying to keep her slim figure.

Then it happened, Cyrus brung up the topic about Velocity runner again. “You know I’d never pull any of his stunts, you’ve even seen me on the track. Admit it; you’re just bummed about the fact that I have to go to different countries to race other people from time to time.” In fact, Cyrus was right. The fact is, that she was afraid to be alone, a planet that was still as new as they came.

“Fine, I do hate it when you leave, you know how much I’m afraid of this world.” Linda yelled. Being on a new world for only twenty years was not enough to deem it safe. There were still diseases that were yet to be uncovered, unknown species of creatures as well.

“But you know racing is my passion. If it got taken away, what would I do, I’m no good at delivering stuff. Nor am I a good military person, I’m sorry but I will not quit.” As Cyrus was talking the food had arrived. They were still arguing, but the waiter just kept minding his business.

“What about me then huh, are you just going to say your not good enough to be with me?” Linda’s voice got loud, the guests at the restaurant couldn’t enjoy their meals, until she got up from the table and left. “I’ll be at home, don’t bother picking me up either.” Those were here last words before she walked out of the restaurant. Cyrus got up and threw the money for the check on the table; he placed the food in a box and walked over to the car. “Damn it! She won’t even acknowledge that racing is all I’m good at.” He started the car up, but when he did a couple of thugs came from out of a corner and walked over to him. “Hey buddy, I see you were giving that lady a hard time. Well, I’ll show you what we do to punks that can’t respect woman.” Cyrus was thrown out of the car and beaten with chains and bats, the police droids didn’t respond to the situation till ten minutes after the beating. Cyrus was quickly taken to a local hospital where he was treated for his injuries and the let go. He returned to his car several minutes later to see it had been trashed. Cyrus cleaned it out enough and drove home, where he hopped Linda was.