The Great Canyon Triathlon!

[FrostyFoster 453]

“Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap!” A skinny man in a lab coat was bolting through the hallway of what looked to be a high tech facility, almost smacking another worker in the leg with his briefcase. As he took a left turn, the door he was looking for finally appeared. “I didn’t expect Mr. Velo’s machine to take that long to fix!” He thought while he typed the entrance code in front of him. As the door opened, the room lit up, only containing a single large cabinet with a table next to it. “Oh man! That was a close one. If he had-” Suddenly, a figure emerged behind the cabinet.

“You’re late, Ernie!” The man yelled. “One of the biggest events ever and you were late?” For someone who seemed important, the man looked fairly average with no outlying features or clothing. “MR. VELO!” The scientist said as he jumped back. “I was just-” “Did you fix the stability issue with the left leg?” Mr. Velo interrupted. Moving his glasses, the scientist put the briefcase of the table, undoing the latches. Mr. Velo pushed the man out of the way and stared at the blue plastic model, gently pull it out of the molded foam. “It’s perfect.” He exclaimed. “But there’s no issue for you to be late.” He walked inside the cabinet, putting the model over what looked to be a scanner. “One of the best racers in the goddamn league and I’m surrounded by morons.” Mr. Velo said as he sat down while putting on a headset. The cabinet door closed as the scientist walked out of the room.

…

“WELCOME TO THE GREAT CANYON TRIATHLON!” An accounted uttered through a microphone. Surrounding him were many large stands with thousands of people cheering. Many battleship were also high in the sky, with some displaying various sponsors on the side of their hulls. This area was only a small chunk of the Great Canyon, one of the many expansive places to go in GBN. The massive ravine went many different directions as nine mobile suits stood at the edge of one side. The platform, which was also surrounded by fans, had a gigantic screen facing everyone, with a smug doppelganger of Stalker smirking at them. “My name is Chaser and I’ll be your announcer for what’s sure to be one of the best GBN’s events ever!”

One by one, the names and mobile suits began to be shown to the crowd. Near one of the concession stands, a Zeon fan with a snake head picked up a large cone with pink cotton candy on top. “Exsscuse me. Sssorry!” He exclaimed while trying to get through a large crowd back to his friends. Meanwhile, a Titans cosplayer was stuck sitting behind one of the biggest ogres he’d ever seen. “Oh, come on!” He screamed. “Can I at least get a look at the screen?” Getting a quick peak, he saw two people standing in front of a Neo Zeon mobile suit. “Next up!” Chaser yelled. “You know their Hotrod from the Axis race and their butting rivalry. It’s the Bawoo Brothers!” At that moment, the whole crowd went silent. Everyone who cared about GBN races knew who was next.
“And last, but DEFINITELY not least, it’s the Celestial Speedster, the GN Driver, the diver looking for his 100th win…”

Dash Velo and the Kyrios Airspace!

The crowd went wild, cheering and hollering as Dash waved at them. No longer boring and drab, the diver now had bright blue hair with white streaks, all while wearing a special tracksuit made just for him. Outside was a confident man who kept waving, but inside, Dash was deep in thought. “He won’t beat me again. Never again…” A buzzer blared, signaling the pilots to teleport into their machine. As Dash appeared in the cockpit, he pulled up the racer list.
 

58-Kyrios Airspace
143-Airblaster
99-Mach Murasame
25- Gassela
392-Asshamar
653-United Over Flag
7-Rezelta
100- Bawoo Hot Attacker
001-Bawoo Rod Nutter
402-Wing Flanker

“Wing Flanker…” Dash muttered. A deep voice then appeared over his comms. “Hey Velo! You gonna end up having another Dakar moment?” The other racer said while snickering. Dash chuckled. “Not if you end up like you did during the Marshall Islands Marathon, Rex!” The deep voice diver howled with laughter as Chaser began speaking to them and the crowd. “The race will begin and go all the way though the ravine. The racers cannot fly over the canyon or use any weapons. Once they get through the ravine, the dogfight begins in the colony crater. When two divers are left, they’ll be transported to the final secret area. They’ll be able to transform and duel for the victory with no restrictions! Are our racers ready?” Each of the Divers signaled, allowing the triathlon to begin. Chaser smiled.

“GUNPLA! TRANSFORM!!!”

Edited June 7, 2020 by FrostyFoster

[FrostyFoster 453]

Each of the mobile suits blasted forward, changing into their much faster flight forms. One by one, the contestants began to make their way into the crevice, with the Wing Flanker taking the lead. “And they’re off!” Chaser exclaimed, now inside an announcers booth of a small transport ship. One of the race’s advertisers had their logo on the side of the vessel, with big red letters spelling out ZAPP. “Looks like the Wing Flanker has taken the lead, but the Kyrios Airspace isn’t too far behind!”

Dash grunted as he tried to catch up to his nemesis, but the somewhat straight path lead to a hard right, causing many of the pilots to pull back. The two didn’t stop though, as the Wing Flanker maneuvered gracefully to the right, creating a big gap between the Gunpla and the others. Meanwhile, Dash’s maneuver wasn’t nearly as successful. He watched as his left wing ever so slightly touched the rock wall, causing him to lose the draft he had with the leader. “Ah! Stupid rookie mistake!” He said while gritting through his teeth.

Many of the other players started to pass the Kyrios, including Rex in his Gassela. “Ha ha!” He laughted while tilting his machine left and right, taunting Dash. “There’s no way in hell you’re getting the win playing like that!” Now near last place, Dash pulled up near the top of the ravine, getting dangerously close to braking the rules. He looked to see if he could find some way to catch up, noticing a fork in the ravine. Situations like that happened constantly in GBN, with Dash rationally thinking what path would give him the best outcome. Seeing the Wing Flanker take the left path took any sense of rationality away from the diver as he began to follow suit.

Diving down, he expected to see his rival, but the pathway only seemed to have him and the Airblaster racing down it. The two were almost neck in neck, but the alert my their mobile suits caused them to bank in different directions. Two tiny flyers blasted past them at breakneck speeds. “What?” Thought Dash. “The Bawoo Brothers aren’t that fast!” Pushing forward, Dash and the other pilot began to catch up to the undocked mobile suit parts. Upon further inspection, Dash knew the brothers weren’t using their typical Bawoo. It was white with red highlights, with it also being shaped slightly differently. “A Rebawoo? They didn’t register that for the race!” While not necessarily illegal in the GBN racing rules (Dash thought of the divers who reveal new Gunpla in tournaments), it was unethical to trick them, although the Bawoo Brothers weren’t known for their ethics.

The attacker and nutter purposely lessened their speed, pulling back to get close to the Airblaster. “What the hell are they up to?” Dash thought. At that moment, the two flew over and under the custom model from Gundam X, sandwiching the poor machine. The Airblaster couldn’t do much except glide with the Neo Zeon flyers, which jetted forward toward the ground. Picking up plenty of speed, the brothers pulled back as hard as they could at the final moment of impact, causing the plane to almost slide out of the “sandwich”. It was too late for the Gunpla though, the Airblaster slammed hard into rocky surface, creating a large explosion. Dash could hear their chuckles as they began to fly back to him.

“Oh man! Looks like the Airblaster is down for the count!” Chaser uttered while in the edge of his seat. Dash Velo better watch out! The Bawoo, or should I say, REBAWOO Brothers are creating mayhem on the racetrack. “What the hell?” yelled Dash as he pressed a couple buttons on the control panel. “These guys are really nasty today!” Looking through their profiles, he finally found a clear picture of the mobile suit.

“That’s definitely an upgrade!” He exclaimed as he glided through the ravine, noticing now curvy their path was becoming. The attacker and nutter had much less of a problem navigating the canyon due to their size, getting closer and closer to Dash with each turn they had to make. The diver wasn’t stupid enough to get squished between them, but he knew how crafty the two could be. He recalled their famed Axis win, where the two managed to tie through clever tricks inside the asteroid. “Those two bickered more during the trophy ceremony than actually enjoying it!” Dash articulated. “Wait…”

The diver’s plan began right as the attacker jetted toward him. Opting to fly diagonally to the left of the nutter, Dash waited for the top part of the Rebawoo to strike, pulling his controls toward himself. The Kyrios flew back as the brothers smacked each other, causing damage to both machines. “Watch it, Scound!” said the nutter pilot, Wretch. “Oh shut up, you shouldn’t of been there in the-” Dash jetted ahead of the two, all while the two bickered. “No you don’t!” The attacker pilot yelled with his brother following suit. Planning out his next move, the Kyrios pilot decided to pull back from his huge lead.

“What’s Dash up to?” Chaser asked. “Oh, I get it! He’s baiting them!” The crowd cheered, with some more focused on the other path’s racers. Getting between the two horizontally, He waited for them to strike again, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to resist the urge. Of course, the attacker and nutter started their assault, but the speed of the Airspace left the two to become a mangled pile. “What the? We’re stuck!” Scound screamed as he pulled his controls in all directions. “This wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t such a terrible pilot!” Wretch responded. “Well your pilotin- AHHHHH!” The two weren’t paying attention to the turn, crashing right into the rock wall while Dash flew past the two.

With Dash being the only person left on the path, he didn’t have much of a challenge getting through, eventually getting to the massive colony crater. It was much better than Dash had expected, but he knew that it would allow them to have plenty of room to fight. “Heh. Wish that was the only part of the match.” He exclaimed once he realized he was the only one there. “I too good for these clowns.” He didn’t have anytime to gloat though, as the other racers made their way to the crater.

Dash noticed that the Rezelta was no where to be seen. “Probably couldn’t handle the turns.” He thought. The aircraft flew all around each other, waiting for the approval by the management to start the second part. “Let the dogfight begin!!!” Chaser screamed as the diver’s weapons unlocked. Dash watched as the other five kicked off the battle. The crowd roared as the fight between divers truly began.

Edited June 10, 2020 by FrostyFoster

[FrostyFoster 453]

Immediately, Dash began to engage his rival, blasting right past the pink Asshimar. Dash wasn’t worrying about any of the other pilots, unless they got in the way. Unfortunately, another Gunpla began to ride on his tail, directly firing at the Kyrios. Dash pointed his beam machine gun, which almost worked like a turret in flight mode, back at the United Over Flag, hoping that the machine would back off. However, Rex had other plans.

The Gassela burst through the clouds, only firing two shots. They each directly hit the middle of the enemy, setting the Over Flag ablaze in the air. “Those were perfect shots!” Dash thought as he banked left, hoping to avoid the purple Gaplant. Rex was no rookie Diver though, and relayed a volley of railgun shots at Dash, hitting parts of the previously damaged wing. At this point, the left wing was toast, causing the Kyrios to lose balance and height quickly. “Geez Dash! I didn’t think you’d go down THAT quickly!” Yelled out Rex as he followed his prey. 

Dash looked up to see the Mach Murasame taking on the gray Wing unit. He knew that would be a challenging fight for his rival. As a real life fighter pilot, the Diver with the Mach Murasame had a type of experience in flying the others wished they could have. As much as it pained him to do so, Dash had to focus on Rex, pulling up as high as he possibly could to avoid crashing into the surface. Letting go of the controls, the aircraft stalled in the air, which likely would’ve caused a great deal of G-Forces in a non GBN setting.

Rex almost panicked as the Kyrios began to almost float toward him, but he still knew some of Dash’s tricks. The large diver decided to instead use brawn over brains, directly hitting the middle of the plane with the large Gaplant. “That’ll show you! I know y-“ Everything began to go black for the cocky diver as the Airspace careened to the bottom of the canyon. “T-this isn’t right.” Dash contemplated as the virtual reality started crumbling around him. “Is the game shutting off? I don’t… I don’t know what…”

Darkness surrounded the pilot, giving him no sense of direction as to where he could be. He was still in the game, as the warnings of the damaged Gunpla reminded him, but where ever he was, it was definitely not the Great Canyon. “I don’t understand.” He uttered while looking through the menu, hoping to find answers, but there was nothing. Every word, pictures, and whatever else he could normally navigate through was gone. “No use looking at a blank screen.” Dash said, but the reality of the situation started to set in. There was no way teleport out of the Kyrios or even log out.

Something was clearly wrong with the game, Dash knew that for sure, but couldn’t quite figure out this plain of “existence” he was in. Was the Gunpla floating or still? Had he been there a minute or a day? His concept of reality crumbled more and more until a faint whisper graced his ear. “what did you expect” The voice faintly spoke to Dash, who by this point had fallen back onto the floor of the cockpit. “you and your rival would fight and youd win” The voice felt louder to the diver, even through he knew it was still a whisper. “Thats Just Garbage Storytelling Where The Racing Legend Pulls Through And Gets Their Stupid Virtual Trophy In The End”

“I… what? I wanna go back. Back to life. Back to reality.” Dash never actually said anything, but the voice knew his thoughts. “ToO LatE FoR ThaT” The voice started to hurt his ears. “How..?” The diver didn’t know what to think anymore. He was simply struck with fear.

…

…

…

“END”

“END”

“END”

GBN AUTOMATIC LOGOUT ATTEMPT #182: FAILURE

GBN AUTOMATIC LOGOUT ATTEMPT #4795: FAILURE

GBN AUTOMATIC LOGOUT ATTEMPT #$&%!: 

SUCCESS
 

Edited July 14, 2020 by FrostyFoster

[FrostyFoster 453]

The inside of the cabinet was soaked with sweat. The GBN racer had fallen out, pushing the door open and knocking his headset off. A worried Ernie stood by him, crouching down to assist him. “Mr. Velo? Mr. Velo!” He yelled into the ear of the dazed diver. Dash slowly awoke, allowing the scientist to help him up. “Y-you were yelling in my ear.” Dash uttered softly. “But… no, that was in GBN.” Ernie looked confused as he brought Dash outside of the room. “Sorry sir. I didn’t mean to yell.” Dash laid against a nearby wall, hoping to keep his balance without assistance. “I felt something. I felt pain.” He exclaimed while looking at his helper. “Wait a minute…” Ernie began to pull out his cell phone. “I don’t know what happened sir. You got fourth place, then just shut down. Let me call-“

“Where are your glasses?”

Dash put his hand on his forehand. The agony he was suffering got worse, crumbling down onto the floor. Ernie and another nearby worker bent down to help, but when Dash looked back up, Ernie had his glasses on. The racer began denying an ambulance, much to the dismay of the workers. They knew Dash was very sick, plus they wanted to get their star player back on the virtual track as soon as possible. Nevertheless, Dash was eventually chauffeured home in the company’s limo.

He rested on the seats of the car, noticing the rain patter down on the vehicle. Dash was at least happy the nightmare was over. Being stuck in GBN like that didn’t make him want to go back. Sure, the company and other sponsors would be pissed, but the amount of money he had didn’t ever need him to work again. The limo started to slow down, stopping at the intersection. Dash pulled himself up as he glanced out the window. “The lights. They aren’t on.” He bent forward toward the driver. “Hey! Is the stoplight broken?” Once he looked back though, the red light turned to green.

…

Dash relaxed in the bedroom of his mansion, allowing the housekeepers to leave early. He had always joked that they were keeping track of him, like Amuro, but now that seemed to be more plausible. Something wasn’t right for him. He clearly felt disoriented, hoping the experience he had was just messing with him mentality, but inside he knew something was up. “Did they drug me?” He thought while he moved around on the bed. “I don’t get it.” A vibration jolted these thoughts, causing Dash to pullout his phone. “Cassidy. It’ll be nice to talk to someone I can trust.” He said as he began to respond.

Dash dropped the phone on the floor, jumping out of the bed. “Ok. I need help.” He stated during his run to the front door. Opening the large door up, Dash was greeted by a skinny man dressed in a black overcoat. “mr velo” The man said. “youre not well” The racer panicked and pushed the lanky guy aside, running down the hill to the front gate. It was meant to keep crazed fans out, but Dash couldn’t find a way to get himself out of it. He looked back as the overcoat man and immediately shuttered. He was a fast runner for someone who didn’t move their joints. The arms and legs of the person, who Dash was starting to think wasn’t even a person, stayed straight while it jolted down the hill to pursuit.

Dash observed the area, realizing there was only one way out for him. The front gate had a small room built by it for the gatekeeper. “This is gonna hurt!” He exclaimed while getting a head start. Bursting through the window, glass cut deep into Dash as he fell into the floor. He didn’t have time to clean up, but there wasn’t much to clean up. The cuts were there, but there was no blood anywhere around him. “GODAMMIT! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!” Dash felt insane as he unlocked the front door, running out onto the street of the rich community.

At this point, everything wasn’t right around him. Colors of buildings were either muted or so bright they hurt his eyes. The people around him didn’t dress normally and the cars moved at a dreadful pace, barely reaching 5 miles in hour. Dash couldn’t stop running through. Two others had joined his pursuer, running the same unnatural way. The diver had to lose them, running inside one of the nearby buildings. However, there was nothing for him to hide behind. It was an endless white void, almost the opposite of the nightmare inside GBN.

Dash turned around, but he was too late. One of the pursuers pushed him onto the white floor, with the others grabbing him by the arms, opting to hold him up instead. The main overcoat wearer pulled out a large blade. “END END END” He pushed the sliver knife into the gut of Dash, causing him to scream in agony. He knew he was going to die in this hellish world and there was nothing he could do about it.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The three pursuers dropped to the void’s ground, bullet holes in each of their heads. No blood poured out of them or Dash’s stab wound. The racer could barely stand as he viewed his lifesaver. “What? Allelujah?”

“Wrong.” He responded while helping up Dash, who noticing that his wound didn’t hurt anymore. “I took this form because it suited me very well.” He snapped his fingers, causing the void to mesh and meld into something else. Dash looked around to see the room, now a spitting image of the main bridge of the Ptolemaios. “I don’t… I don’t get it. Is this GBN?” The CB lookalike stood still. “Yes and no. The best way I can explain it is that it’s a middle point between logging in and the game itself.” He paced through the area, circling around Dash. “The world you were in was a creation by the data inside your brain, likely an attempt by you to make everything be back to normal again. It failed.” The diver looked concerned. “Data?” His lifesaver glanced back away, then back.

“Your body is likely deceased. Whatever is standing next to me could be the only part of Dash Velo that’s left. A copy perhaps?” Dash didn’t know how to respond. Nothing made sense to him anymore. “So who are you then?” He asked. The man showed emotion for the first time as he slightly smiled. “I’m the most important thing to you in all of GBN. I’m the Airspace.” Dash jumped back. “My Gunpla? But how?”

Airspace snapped his fingers once again, sending them back to the white void building. Him and Dash walked out, with the diver worrying about other strange people finding him. At that moment, it popped out of the world. “Sorry, I had to leave that void. I’ve had these powers ever since I was born, but every time I use them, THEY show up.” The two stood in the middle of the street, with no people in sight. “I have so many questions.” Exclaimed a very confused Dash.

Airspace once again smirked. “The other guy and I will try to explain everything we can, but right now we need to get to a safer area. Someplace that we can make a game plan to leave his hell you’ve created.” Dash wasn’t trilled about the jab at him, but he still wanted one question answered. “The other guy?” A blast of air hit the two as they looked up, seeing a Nemo floating down from the sky. Dash noticed that it looked slightly different from the regular AEUG mobile suit while the cockpit opened. The pilot held the grapple until it reached the ground, letting go as he walked toward the two. Holding his right hand out, he began to speak.

“Hello Dash. My name is Ryder Sarka.”