The Ludicrous Escapade Pt.3

Let the Race Begin!

At 10 A.M. on September 25th, 1890, the Trans-North American Steel Ball Run finally began. The fireworks shot off into the sky, alerting all 3,825 racers to start.

Filled with people eager to watch the action was a train that was chugging along the tracks to the side. Several hot air balloons took to the sky, carrying people who would be keeping a careful eye on all the participants.

All horses started up simultaneously. This, in combination with the thundering of thousands of hooves, made it seem almost as though the world was shifting apart.

Immediately breaking off from the group was Gyro. He was going forward at a sprint, and made no sign of slowing down. In fact, he seemed to speeding up even more. Already he had several horse lengths of distance between himself and everyone else.

"Gyro Zeppeli." Johnny mumbled the name to himself as he observed the Italian man's horse. He recognized it as a stock horse. A type he heard had amazing stamina. "Is he relying on that stamina here?" Johnny was currently only a little bit ahead of you.

"Hey, Moxy..." You leaned closer to your horse as you spoke to her. "It's only 15,000 meters. You can do this, right?" You lightly tapped the horse's side with your foot, urging her to speed up.

You wanted to learn more about the Spin Gyro had used. And at the moment, the best way to do that seemed to be doing well in the first segment of the race. You could also tell that many of the other horses were starting to get agitated. You wanted to get out of the pack before people started to trip all over themselves.

And, not too far behind you, three horses crashed into each other. A few of the racers toppled off their mounts and were crushed beneath them. Body charging wasn't against the rules or anything, so you supposed they wouldn't do anything about the situation until the area cleared out.

Something splattered along the side of your face from the crash behind you. You briefly touched it and looked at the red substance on your hand. "Oh. It's blood." You wiped your hand off on your pants, ready to focus back in on the race, but a large shadow soon overtook you.

It was Avdol on his camel, looming several feet above you. Just the camel itself must have been more than two meters tall. Now seeing him up close, there was no denying how similar he looked to the Avdol you had known. It was a bit unsettling, if you were being honest. As he got closer to Gyro, he had his camel begin to repeatedly ram against the side of the Zeppeli's horse, causing him to lose speed.

Zooming on past you from the right side was Diego Brando, who was also intent on surpassing the Italian man. You didn't really know him yet, but the fact that he had Dio spelled out on his hat in gold letters told you that he probably thought highly of himself.

Gyro removed a steel ball from its holster, beginning to spin it in his hand before tossing it ahead of him. It bounced off a tree and then rolled along the ground into a bunch of cacti, appearing to cover it with a cloud of dust.

"He's going into the grove!" Shouted Johnny. "No! He'll get caught between the trees!" If Gyro died there would be no one to teach him Spin. If that were to happen, he might never be able to walk again.

"Let's... go around." You had Moxy go slightly to the right so you could be sure to avoid the prickly plants Gyro had been trying to hide.

"If anyone is going to get that time bonus, it's me, Avdol!" Announced the camel rider. "The final blow..." He lunged. Instead of hitting Gyro, he was tangled up in cacti. The camel freaked out, trying to remove the plant that lodged itself into its skin. The animal toppled over, bringing its rider down with it. While a part of you was sad to see him out so early, you had to remind yourself that this wasn't the same Avdol you had known.