Chapter 21

By the time the final lap of the race rolled around, Mike was in the lead, but Kevin was close behind. He tried to pass each time Mike moved a little to one side, but Mike was adept at blocking. Kevin felt himself grow nervous. Was he going to be able to push through?

Then, he saw his chance: an upcoming corner that Mike hadn’t quite blocked him out from. At the last second, he executed a late cut. Mike didn’t know what hit him. As Kevin slid past, Mike’s expression was a stunned one. But Kevin couldn’t let this faze him. Now, he’d gained a lead that he had to keep.

The crowd cheered at this turn of events.

“Wow, what a twist, folks!” the announcer called out. “Number Eighteen regains control and zooms in the direction of the finish line. Will he be caught?”

Agent Reynolds stood from his place in the bleachers. The race would end soon. He had to prepare for the capture. He spoke orders into his comrades’ commlinks as he walked, speaking low enough that those surrounding him couldn’t hear his voice over the vehicle motors.

“Get ready on my mark.”

Yet, when he was halfway down the bleachers, his cell phone began to buzz. He answered, though he didn’t want to.

“Reynolds speaking.”

Dr. Milan’s voice on the other end of the line made Reynolds’ heart drop. “Agent, the mission is a failure. The reality inducer is down.”

“What? How?”

At that moment, on the grounds of a nearby set of bleachers, a man in his thirties with faded blond hair stood with his hands in the pockets of his trench coat. He moved quickly, so quickly that he was hard to notice if you weren’t looking for him. He hovered at a small opening between the barriers, which separated the spectators from the tracks. On the left side of his head, a neural implant was downloading information about a person of interest called Kevin Riley. He watched the racers make their way toward the finish line with Kevin in the lead. He eyes Kevin as he crosses the line, causing the crowd to erupt in cheers.

“He did it! He did it!” the announcer bellowed over the PA. “Number eighteen—Kevin Riley—wins! His team is going to Nationals!”

With the wind in his hair, Kevin grinned and began his victory lap. Mike’s team and the teams of the other racers began to settle in their respective pit stations.

“Get that machine fixed immediately,” muttered Reynolds. He didn’t even allow Milan to respond before he hung up the phone.

At the same moment he looked back at the tracks, the man in the trench coat received new orders from his implant: kill Kevin Riley.

“Target acquired,”

The man stepped out onto the racetrack and stood in place as Kevin was coming around the final bend to his victory lap. Agent Reynolds, from a distance, noticed the man for the first time. He pulled out his binoculars once more.

He quickly noticed the implant attached to the man’s head. His jaw nearly dropped.

“It can’t be,” he whispered to himself.

Kevin was mostly focused on his feeling of relief. His powers hadn’t acted up during the race. And he’d won! It took him a moment to figure out that someone was standing in place on the racetrack as though he was waiting for him. The man opened up his trench coat, letting it slide off his shoulders and arms, hitting the ground with its weight. It revealed his enhanced battle armor. He lowered into a sprinter’s stance and began to charge up with red energy that powered his suit. When his suit maxed out, he launched toward his target. Before Kevin could react, the man was inches from his face. He grabbed Kevin by the throat, lifted him off his bike, and slammed him on the track, knocking the helmet off his head. A riderless bike steered off the track and crashed into a nearby concrete wall. The bike exploded into flames.

That got everyone’s attention. Several nearby security personnel—those who were not Advent Guards in disguise—came rushing to the scene to aid the teen in trouble.

“I don’t know what’s happening, folks,” said the announcer, hesitation in his voice. We seem to have a situation on the track.

Security guards arrived with their guns aimed at the man holding Kevin by his throat as Kevin tried to pry his hand off.

“Release the boy now!” hollered one of the security guards his gun aimed at the intruder.

The man didn’t react, glaring at Kevin with deadly intent as he choked him. Without looking back, , he raised his free hand toward the security guards and formed a glowing red orb of energy from his palm. Kevin and the guards’ eyes widened.

“It’s a Seirei Jin!” yelled another guard. “Take cover!”

Kevin knew he had to act fast. He wrapped his legs around the arm that restrained them, and with a simple twist, he used his body weight to flip the man onto his side just as he fired a beam of energy. Instead of hitting the security officers, the beam hit an empty set of raised benches on the other side of the tracks, destroying it which set the crowd off. The crowd began to scream.

The jin lost his grip, and Kevin rolled away. He scrambled to his feet, gasping for air as the man also rose to his feet, glaring at him. A siren blared throughout the racetrack, mingling with the sounds of chaos.

“Everyone, please evacuate the area,” the announcer declared over the speaker. “There has been a Jin sighting. I repeat, a Jin sighting.”

The families of the racers scrambled to gather their loved ones and joined the massive crowd at the exit. Johnny and Sara had been found by their parents, who were trying to drag the teenagers toward the exit. However, Johnny just couldn’t stomach leaving his friend again. He tore away from his parents.

“Johnny, are you crazy?” yelled his mother. “We need to get out of here.”

Johnny was at a crossroads. He knew what his best friend was, but he worried that he was up against a seirei jin much crazier than the one encountered at school. He watched the seirei jin attack only for Kevin to dodge. He had to help. Johnny glanced back at his parents, possibly for the last time, and ran back toward the track.

“Johnny!!” he heard from behind him. He knew, in this tight of a crowd, they wouldn’t be able to follow him.

Johnny felt a hand on his shoulder. He whirled around, eyes wide, ready to tell his mother or father to go back, to get out. But it was just Sara. Her face was tear-streaked, but she had come to the same conclusion he had. They had to protect Kevin.

Johnny and Sara arrived at the edge of the racetrack once more. At the same moment, Agent Reynolds reached the bottom of the bleachers and approached the tracks. All three of the new arrivals met a strange scene: Kevin and the Jin in the midst of battle, with Kevin’s family huddled just a few hundred feet away, watching.

“We have to do something.” Alexia pleaded to her husband in a low voice. “We can’t just let this happen.”

David’s mind ran a million miles a minute. He needed a plan, some way to get Kevin out of this mess. When he saw Johnny and Sara out of the corner of his eye, both wheeling their bikes back onto the track, David didn’t know what to think.

“What are you guys doing?” he asked. “You shouldn’t be here. Your parents-”

“We’re not going to abandon Kevin again,” Sara stated. “We’re gonna get him out of there.”

Before Kevin’s folks could reply, Sara hopped onto her bike. Johnny did the same.

Everyone’s attention was drawn to a loud crash. Kevin was thrown into a nearby barrier. Thankfully, his uniform had enough padding to absorb most of the impact, but he felt sore all over when he tried to stand. The Seirei Jin was unfazed and ready to attack again.

“Look, I don’t know why I’ve become a magnet to Jins all of a sudden, but I know there are good ones out here,” said Kevin. He raised his arms in a gesture of surrender. “Why don’t we stop and figure this out together?”

The man didn’t reply. Instead, he charged at Kevin with fists glowing with red energy. Kevin blocked a couple of punches but missed the third one, which slammed into his stomach. Kevin buckled forward, gasping for air.