Rigged

As the fated day arrived, Rex and Zain went to the prison cafeteria again. For some reason, the wardens had them gathered in this place instead of their own cells or another specialized room. Zain, being the regular that he was, knew the answer, but Rex couldn’t get him to open his mouth at all.

“Guess the guy’s as nervous as I am,” the young boy thought, but he wouldn’t dare say it out loud. Being at risk of getting punched was one thing, what Rex wanted to avoid right now would be having their hard-earned teamwork during the preparation week going down the drain. Although, calling it “teamwork” was a bit of a stretch – as Rex feared, he was already hopeless enough on a motorcycle, let alone controlling a ball along with it.

“One week is too short…” Rex unconsciously exclaimed, even if just a second ago he was trying his best not to.

“Stop complaining,” answered Zain, crossing his hands in a stoic look.

The two boys waited at their usual spot – the center table. Just as they settled down, however, a pair of familiar faces had arrived at the scene.

“Why am I not surprised,” Zain grunted as he saw the first sight of Jack’s blond locks fluttering in the AC’s wind.

“On the contrary for me, Zain boy,” Jack replied with a light smirk. “I thought you said you worked alone?”

“… Circumstances happened.”

“Oh, yes. I’ve heard about it. This little boy right here… Rex, isn’t it? You’ve been the talk of the facility for a while now.”

The target of Jack’s provocation, however, didn’t respond. Instead, his eyes were fixated on the bull-head warden standing right beside Jack, gritting his teeth in fury.

“You…” Rex hissed at his target – another rare occurrence of him actively showing his emotions. The recipient, meanwhile, seemed rather confused at the sudden hostility.

“Do I… know you?” Bruce squinted his eyes in doubt.

“You’re telling me you don’t remember me?” Rex’s blood boiled even more, so much that one could see red veins popping out of his eyes. “You’re the one who threw me in this dump, and now you’re telling me you can’t even remember who I am?”

“Did I now? You gotta narrow that down, kid. I throw a lot of people in here.” Responding to Rex’s anger was Bruce’s carefree attitude as he disinterestedly picked his nose, adding more fuel to the flame.

As Rex was about to lose himself to the provocation, Zain’s hand had already grabbed hold of his shoulder, pulling him back just in the nick of time.

“Easy. Don’t fall for their tricks. We settle this on the field.”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Jack let out a devious smile at the remark while taking out a small remote from his pocket and pushing its only button. A rumbling sound was heard throughout the facility, and soon enough arose a large, ominous elevator in the middle of the cafeteria.

“Come in,” waved Jack towards the contestants. “It’s time for your big show.”

The two pairs were greeted with four beds as they emerged out of the elevator, each having a single helmet in the middle. Unlike the trashy prototypes Rex and Zain had been wearing for their training, this model was the real deal, with a slick black design that covered the user’s entire head, combined with a pair of wires hidden behind the back connecting to a large computer in the center back of the room.

“I’m sure you two know how to use these?” Jack raised his eyebrows. To his expectations, both inmates answered with a firm nod.

“Well then, let the game begins.”

As the scene of the field appeared in front of Rex’s eyes once more, the boy could feel the difference in the air already. Not only that chilling sensation of the wind and the earthy grass smell were more real and lifelike, but the thunderous cheer from the crowd filling all sides of the stand also perfectly recreated the unmistakable vibe of a sporting event. If only it wasn’t a high-stakes game that could decide the fate of their lives; or else Rex would have taken the time to truly enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” A loud, yet familiar, digitized voice echoed through the modern area, towering over even the loudest cheers. And as Rex looked up the sky toward the direction of the commentator, the only reaction he could make was an angered shout:

“God damn it, AIDE! Is this what you call healthcare?”

“Greetings everyone to our exciting opening game of the Red-Black Course tonight!” The AI, meanwhile, continued its duty as usual. “I am your host, the ever-so-responsible-and-reliable AIDE. And if some of you are wondering why the hell I’m here, well the owner of this dump was such a dirty cheapskate that he didn’t even bother to include another AI into this system.”

“The old bucket of bolts got upgraded with some new emotion package I see,” Rex, with nothing else to retort to, had to satisfy with a sarcastic remark.

“It’s a module we added whenever we need it to commentate the games,” replying to Rex was Jack, who had changed his normal officer uniform into a navy-blue skin-tight jumpsuit. “It does add quite a bit of charm, doesn’t it?”

“More like an annoyance.”

Rex replied, changing his wardrobe as well. In a flash, a data storm gathered around him, disintegrating his normal grey prison wear with a red and black jumpsuit of his own.

AIDE’s voice, meanwhile, continued from above.

“Now then, for the peeps watching this for the first time, I’ll explain the rules. The first game for this year is motorcycle football. Don’t ask how or why we got that name; its creator was just lazy. It’s literally what it sounds like: our players will play football, or soccer if you’re weird like that, on motorcycles!

Of course, the motorcycles themselves aren’t just your regular old dirt bikes either. Despite what it might imply, our bikes for this race are all hover vehicles! It’s a heart-throbbing, adrenaline-filled land-and-aerial battle!

Our contestants start with the drafting phase, where they would choose their steed for the game! Oh, and would you look at that! It seems like our challengers will have the first pick!”

“Are you sure about this?” Meanwhile, on the field, Rex whispered to Zain.

“No worries, those fools can never ride my bike, so they can’t pick it away. Just focus on choosing what would make you the least dead weight.”

More like no one would be crazy enough to ride that rocket of yours… Rex thought, but he agreed with the strategy. He was the weak link of the team, so covering his weakness should take priority.

Scrolling through the plethora of holographic projections, Rex finally settled on the bike he thought would give him the most advantage, the act of which was quickly noted and commentated by AIDE:

“Challenger Rex has chosen the VF-18! Short for Vantablack Fortress, this jet-black monster of a machine is unrivaled in its durability, but its speed is, of course, not up to par with the other specimen! Does this mean that despite his looks, challenger Rex is playing the role of an unbreakable shield?”

“Great minds think alike, little boy,” Jack let out a smile, picking his own vehicle without much concern.

AIDE once again hyped up the crowd with its play-by-play. “Incredible! Warden Jack seems to have the same idea! It’s the second-in-line in terms of stamina and durability, but its acceleration and maneuverability are not to trifle with! The Kevlar Spider, KS-23!

And there it is, folks! The center of attention! Challenger Zain’s unrivaled vehicle, the Crimson Arrow, CA-01! Top speed, top acceleration, but almost zero durability, this should only be useful for a suicide strike! But the man makes it work anyway!

Finally! Warden Bruce chooses… the SR-07? I mean, it stands for Super Reliable, sure, but that’s just because it’s the prototype for all hover vehicles. Its stats are all average to below average as well. We’ll see how this plays out, folks!”

“And now…” A simultaneous announcement came from both sides on the field, as well as AIDE to the crowd, who then immediately followed up with the final countdown to start the game:

“Three…”

“Two…”

“One…”

“Kick-off!”

As the whistle was blown, the stadium was soon engulfed in the smell of burnt grass, the booming sound of revving engines, as well as the crackling cheers from all sides. After a split second, Zain had already started the attack with a sprint straight to the goal, his bike lunging forward at what could only be described as supersonic speed.

However, as everyone was thinking of an early advantage for the challengers, Zain’s bike suddenly decelerated right in front of Jack, giving the warden just in time to skillfully steal the ball away from Zain with a hook from the front fender.

“What the…” Zain exclaimed in shock, but his question was answered before he could even finish it in the first place.

“A fast speed and acceleration can only get you so far, don’t you remember?” Jack let out a conniving grin while keeping the ball up in the air with his bike’s front end. “Like a cheetah, your ride gets tired easily. That means I just need to time my tackles right to take the ball away from you.”

“You little…” Zain twisted the handle as strong as he could, but true to Jack’s words, his bike wouldn’t move for a while. The faint smoke coming out of its front hood was already enough proof as it was.

Jack, having anticipated it from the start, had the luxury to taunt him with that performance just now. But the warden had had enough fun playing around, and swiped his bike upward for a lofted pass toward his partner:

“Score us a goal, Bruce!”

“Roger, Colonel!” The other warden revved up his engine and flew away at incredible speed, comparable even to Zain’s movement a second ago, shocking the entire audience body. And the moment the ball and Bruce’s bike collided, a powerful shot was generated, turning the otherwise normal soccer ball into a lethal bullet being fired from the strongest rifle around.

However, a goal was quickly denied on the warden’s side as well. Rex, maneuvering a large and bulky vehicle as his ride, was still able to do a full 360-degree sweep with his bike, knocking away the incoming shot with ease.

And to make even more of a show than it had already been, once the ball was knocked away, its trajectory didn’t pack so much force, resulting in the ball drawing an elegant curve before landing exactly in front of Rex’s bike, as if everything was already calculated from the start.

But the surprises didn’t stop there, as Bruce was bursting with anger for a completely different reason.

“Impossible! You didn’t even hit the ball! That hunk of junk was still inches away from touching it!”

“Rich for you to say,” Rex, meanwhile, only smirked at the accusation. “Your hunk of junk shouldn’t be packing half that speed and power, let alone able to do what you did just now.”

“That…”

“It doesn’t take a genius to understand your rigged game, wardens. And once I knew what kind of tricks you were pulling, well… it wasn’t hard for me to replicate it for my side. A simple adjustment of the hitboxes and collision algorithm makes a wonderful turn, don’t you think?”