Skylar nodded at her personal computer. “It means we can get payback, and he can’t do anything about it.” She adjusted her headset. “Roland, our quantum system doesn’t have the range of our other one, but it is more powerful. I need you to get close enough to touch his droid arms.”
Roland took off running towards Pixel. The other racers were still writhing on the ground and groaning as their systems were being overloaded. He leaped into the air and tackled Pixel to the ground. Pixel looked up, surprised. Roland wasted no time and began punching Pixel in the face.
Skylar grinned. “Now, grab his arm. I am uploading this virus to the whole Psychedelic Group!”
Roland grabbed both of pixels brightly colored arms. Pixel leaned his head up to try and get free. Roland headbutted him right back into the sand.
Skylar hit the enter key to upload her virus.
Roland’s hands felt hot. “Sky, did you send it?”
Skylar nodded. “Sure did. That heat you felt was because you just did a quantum data transfer of about five hundred terabytes.”
Pixel struggled and then yelled as his systems were being overloaded.
Skylar watched her terminals intently. A bunch of little lights on her network map, of the Psychedelic Group’s remote hackers, started going blank.
Coach watched over her shoulder. “What’s it doing?”
Skylar pointed at the lights. “Each of those is a hacker connected to the Psychedelic Group. My virus is wiping their systems!”
A shadow fell on Roland. He looked up. Duke towered over him.
Duke glared down at Roland. “Leprechaun. Get off him. He’s mine. No one hacks my firewall - no one.”
Roland stood up and moved back. He watched as three hover cams circled the area in anticipation of what Duke might do.
Pixel tried to backpedal in the sand to get away from Duke.
Duke grabbed Pixel’s ankles in his left hand and picked him up, upside down. “No one hacks me!” Duke grabbed Pixel’s arms with his right hand and stretched him out horizontally. Then he slammed Pixel’s slender frame down as he brought his knee up. The pneumatics in Duke’s arms hissed as they gave him added power. He snapped Pixel’s back across his knee like he was a piece of kindling. Duke dropped Pixel into a heap in the sand.
Pixel never moved again.
Without another word, Duke turned and began jogging away to the next sand dune.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
SANDSTORM
THE REST OF the racers were struggling to get to their feet after being hacked by Pixel. Many shook their heads, trying to clear them, as their NAVs rebooted their systems to get them back online.
Roland helped Bianca get to her feet.
Bianca nodded at Roland. “Thank you, mon.” She took a couple of wobbly steps and then fell right back into her light-footed rhythm.
Roland began jogging towards the next hill, but then he saw a racer struggling to get up. He was a digital wearing a purple uniform. He seemed familiar. Roland jogged over to him and bent down to help the man up. “Enrique?” The man looked up at him. Enrique’s face was battered and bloodied. His right eye was almost swollen shut. Sand filled every cut on his face.
Enrique looked at Roland for a minute, trying to recognize him. “Roland?” He winced and then lifted his shirt to look at his ribcage. His whole upper body was one big, purplish green bruise.
Roland steadied him. “Whoa, Duke do this to you?”
Enrique shook his head. “No, it was that multi-colored racer. He came out of nowhere.”
Roland pointed back to Pixel’s dead body, which the hover medics were now loading up. “I took him down, and then Duke broke his back.”
Enrique watched Pixel being loaded. “Good riddance.” He started trying to jog forward. He stopped after a few steps and snapped his fingers in front of himself. Then three lights lit up on his forearm. As he touched each one, it went out. Then Enrique’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell to his knees. His body started to have minor convulsions.
Roland started towards him.
Coach had been watching Enrique through Roland’s feed. “Hold on, Roland. Don’t help him.”
Roland stopped and leaned his head right for more information.
Coach crossed his arms. “That was the reboot sequence for a digital. He was too damaged to run. He needed a reset. Don’t worry. His NAVs will bring him back up.”
Roland started towards the next sand dune. He looked back at Enrique once more. Enrique was now standing. He saw Enrique put his fingers in the back of his throat and then begin to vomit. He threw up violently three times.
Skylar looked away from Roland’s feed.
Coach nodded. “Yeah, he’s ok now. It’s actually how a digital begins healing. They purge the excess blood and inflammation by throwing it up.”
Roland settled back into his rhythm of short strides. The sweltering heat continued to beat down on him. He checked his odometer, and it showed that he was just passing mile four of the desert section. He heard someone crunching through the sand on his right. He looked over. It was Enrique.
Enrique pulled up next to Roland. The swelling in his eye was almost completely gone. He had wiped off the dirt on his face and most of his cuts had already been healed. He hardly even looked winded.
Roland nodded at Enrique. “Looks like your NAV fixed you up pretty good.”
Enrique gave a half nod. “Yep. Paid a hundred grand for that healing app. I think it was worth every cent.” Enrique started to speed up and pull away. “See you at the finish line!”
Roland checked his speed on his HUD. It read 18 mph. He knew that was about all he could do with the sand and heat.
Skylar was watching her signals. “Roland, there’s something big ahead. I’m not sure, but it looks like a wall. You will be coming up on it around the five mile mark.
Roland nodded. The terrain flattened out. He could see Enrique and several other racers ahead. He leaned his head right.
Skylar was rotating the three dimensional hologram map. “Looking for a way around.”
Roland squinted ahead. He couldn’t see anything that looked like a wall. His HUD showed that he had just passed the four and half mile mark. The sky looked dark ahead.
Coach looked away from Skylar’s signal monitoring back to Roland’s feed. “Whoa, Skylar, look at the feed. That’s a wall all right but not like you are thinking.”
Skylar got up and came closer to Roland’s feed.
Roland leaned his head right again for more information.
Coach pointed at the dark sky ahead. “It’s a sandstorm.”
Skylar zoomed the feed in closer. “It’s huge!” She ran back to her chair and began going through her sensor data. “The winds are measuring it at 40 mph. The dust is so thick. I think it will be pitch black in there.”
Roland couldn’t see past the wall of sand and dust ahead. He couldn’t see any of the other racers. He pulled his shirt off and wrapped it around his head to cover his mouth.
Skylar increased the intensity of her typing. “Roland, I just uploaded a new plugin that will invert the colors for you, like night vision.”
Roland shook his head. “Need to be able to see with my eyes closed.”
Skylar nodded and went back to typing. “I’m on it.”
Coach watched Roland’s feed, which was pretty much just a brown blur. “Skylar, we need something like that sonar plugin from earlier. He has to be able to cover his eyes completely.”
Skylar finished her typing and hit the enter key. “Ok, uploaded a new one now. It’s called 3D Sonar. I cranked up your sonar pulses, and it will map out the land in front of you. I also added an infrared component, so you can easily see the other racers by their body heat.”
Roland closed his eyes and enabled the 3D Sonar plugin. Then he re-tied his shirt so it completely covered his face. His whole view changed to one that was coded in green wireframes. It was clear where to run now. He could easily see the other
racers. Their bodies glowed an eerie orange and red. He re-enabled the O2 plugin, which had gotten turned off during his switch to quantum processing earlier. He took a compass bearing and began heading towards the checkpoint. The wind sandblasted him as he ran, but it didn’t affect his heading at all. The sand became more hard packed underfoot. Roland was able to increase his speed. His HUD read 24 mph.
Skylar watched as Roland moved rather easily, despite being blindfolded. The 3D Sonar plugin completely mapped out everything in front of him.
Roland came up on Enrique first. He was walking with his hands out in front of him. Roland tapped him on the shoulder. “Follow me.”
Enrique fell in behind Roland without a word.
Next Roland found Bianca. She was still jogging, but she had turned hard left and was way off course. He called her name out and slowed down a little. “This way!”
Bianca came running fast towards Roland. “Ain’t never seen nothin’ like this on de island, mon!” Then she got behind Enrique.
Roland turned on the speed, knowing that both Enrique and Bianca could easily keep up. The ground became harder, and he enabled the Fast Twitch plugin. He felt the muscles in his legs get pulled taut, and he lengthened his stride. His HUD now showed that they were passing the eight mile mark. Roland saw a huge heat source in the distance. It was Duke. They were gaining on him. As Roland got closer, he saw Duke turn his head to look at them. Once Duke saw them behind him, he turned up his speed and began widening the gap. Roland knew it wasn’t worth expending the energy to catch him, yet.
Roland kept his pace, working hard to stay in a rhythm with his breathing, but the shirt over his face was making it more difficult. It seemed hard to get the oxygen his body needed. As he cleared the nine and half mile marker, he broke out of the sandstorm. The air was clean and bright. Roland yanked his smelly shirt off his face and switched off the 3D Sonar plugin. He breathed in a badly needed deep breath of air. The fog in his brain, built up from breathing in his own exhaled carbon dioxide, began to clear right away. He pulled his tattered shirt back on. Then he saw the red light show up on his arm. Roland looked up, and he could see the checkpoint banner in the distance. He looked behind and could see that Enrique and Bianca were still close. Enrique gave him a nod that showed deep respect for a fellow competitor.
Bianca half smiled at Roland. “Thank you, mon. I’m appreciatin’ it.”
Roland began to slow as he approached the checkpoint.
Skylar pulled up Pinnacle’s Tech Games race data. “Wow, Roland! You are in position 92! You passed over a two hundred other contestants in the desert.”
Roland nodded. “It was your 3D Sonar plugin, Sky. Thank you.”
Coach watched as Roland neared the checkpoint. “Great work there, Roland. Drink as much water as you can here. You need to rehydrate.”
Skylar’s terminal, with the race data, began flashing. She touched the flashing alert on her holographic terminal. She frowned as she read it. She motioned for Coach to come over and see.
Coach came over to look at it. “Roland, you need to hurry up.”
Roland passed under the checkpoint banner which read, “Welcome to Checkpoint 5: Urban.” The light in his arm turned from red to green and then went out. “What is it?”
Coach crossed his arms. “Spectra just finished the race. She’s in first place.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
URBAN
ROLAND OPENED TWO bottles of water and chugged one while dumping the other on his head to cool down. “Are you serious? Spectra’s already finished?”
Bianca stopped drinking and bumped Roland’s arm with her elbow. “Hey, mon. What’d you say?”
Roland opened another water bottle. “Spectra just crossed the finish line!”
Bianca looked shocked. “What? C’mon, mon! We got to go!” She grabbed one more water bottle and then took off at a run.
Enrique grabbed a second water bottle. “Spectra? She’s Pinnacle’s racer, right?”
Roland nodded and then grabbed a handful of nutrition bars. These ones were labeled as ‘fruit’ flavored. He also snatched a few packets that said ‘coffee gel’ on them.
Enrique took off and looked back over his shoulder. “See you at the finish!”
Skylar pulled up the map. “Roland, I’m mapping out some different routes through the urban section. There’s no direct route. It looks like a giant maze.”
Coach was watching the feeds of the other racers that were going through the urban section. “I’m watching Pinnacle’s feeds, Roland. She’s right. But it’s not just a maze. There’s also a lot of high speed traffic in the streets.”
Roland leaned his to the head right as he jogged past the snack tables. He bit into one of the fruit bars. He had to suppress a gag reflex. “Tastes like rotten fruitcake.” It was so vile that it made the hairs on his arm stand up.
Coach crossed his arms. “You’re close enough to the end. Don’t eat them. How many coffee gels did you get?”
Roland chucked the rest of the fruit bars into the trashcan. Then looked down at the packets in his hand. “Three.”
“Have one now, one at the five mile mark and have the last one on the final stretch.”
Roland nodded and opened the gel packet. He squeezed the whole thing into his mouth. The smell of strong coffee washed over him. The gel was almost as thick as peanut butter. Its strong, bitter essence overrode the horrible fruitcake taste in his mouth and the dust of the desert. Within a few seconds of swallowing it, he felt himself jolt awake. His thoughts became clearer.
Coach looked over the map that Skylar had laid out and at the feeds of the other racers. “Roland, I have an idea. Remember what I said during training about your freerunning and parkour?”
Roland nodded. “Yeah, you said to forget it ever existed and that it had no place in the Tech Games.”
Coach smirked. “I was wrong. The urban section is actually the perfect place for it.”
Roland smiled. One, because Coach rarely admitted that he was wrong and two, because he loved freerunning. It had been a hobby that complimented his martial arts interests, but Coach had said that it was too unpredictable to use during the games. “When I start, I’m not going to stop until I reach the end of the section. Sky, all I want is turn-by-turn directions. Nothing else.”
Skylar nodded. “You got it.”
Roland started to pick up speed as he headed towards the looming buildings ahead. He added his position number to his HUD. It read 94 since he had been passed by Bianca and Enrique. Then he added in his GPS, which overlaid a green line on the ground in front of him, to indicate which direction to take. Finally, he added in Fast Twitch, O2 and Leapfrog.
Skylar looked over at Roland’s feed. She covered her mic and leaned towards Coach. “That’s a lot of plugins he’s using. That’s going to burn a huge amount of calories and put a heavy load on his system.”
Coach’s brow furrowed. “If there was ever a time to lay it on the line, this is it. Is it going to be too much?”
Skylar shrugged. “I don’t know. You know Roland won’t quit, but I don’t know about the nano.”
Coach nodded. “Keep a close eye on his vitals and stats, ok?”
Skylar gave a nod and went back to her terminal. “Roland, I’ve been working on something new I think you’ll like.” She hit the enter key on her holographic keyboard to upload it to him. “It’s called Slow Mo. This plugin will pull every available nano cell in your body and put them in the processing swarm. They should process everything so fast around you, that it feels like you are moving in slow motion. You’ll move at your normal speed though. Slow Mo should just help you react faster and better.”
Roland gave the thought command for Slow Mo. His body shuttered like a cold chill was going through him, but he wasn’t cold. He almost tripped, but caught himself and kept going. Roland blinked. When he opened his eyes, he watched as a car drove in front of him. It seemed like it was barely moving. Instead of the wheels bein
g a blur, he could see each spoke in the hub as it moved. A bird flew by. Roland noticed that it flapped its wings seven times in order to cross the street. He noticed that the pinion feather on its right wing was more tattered than the other feathers, causing it to drift slightly to the right. The speed in his HUD registered as 20 mph. “Sky, how fast is that car moving?”
Skylar watched Roland’s feed. It didn’t look any different. “30 or 40 maybe. Why?”
Roland had almost reached the end of the entrance street. The street he would have to cross was filled with heavy two way traffic. “This Slow Mo is unbelievable! Best one yet!”
Coach poured himself another cup of coffee and watched Roland’s feed with interest. “Roland, you’re in position 94. 48 is the cutoff. Let’s see that parkour running!”
Roland could feel every sinew being pulled taut as the Fast Twitch became enabled. He switched up his breathing to work with the O2 plugin. He took in a long deep breath. He could smell the exhaust from the cars ahead, freshly mowed grass and a nearby hotdog vendor. The muscles in his legs felt like compressed springs as Leapfrog came online. Roland leaped on top of a parked car in front of him and catapulted himself over the busy street. He tucked his knees into his chest as he went into a front flip.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
PARKOUR
ROLAND SAW THE traffic moving below him as he flipped. The Slow Mo plugin really showed off all the details that he would have normally missed. He could see that there were no drivers in any of the cars. They were all being driven on autopilot. Having cleared the midpoint in his jump, he began to untuck his knees in preparation for landing. He landed on the sidewalk on the far side of the road. Roland turned around to look at the street.
Coach had a stunned look on his face as he watched Roland’s feed. “Whoa! Roland, you just cleared thirty feet worth of road and traffic!”
Nano Contestant - Episode 2: Ultimate Endurance (An Urban Futuristic Fantasy Sci-Fi Action Adventure Genetic Cyberpunk Techno Thriller) (Nano Contestant ... Fantasy Action Adventure TechnoThrillers)) Page 7