Street Racing- Klance

twenty six

"Now that's impressive." Comments Zarkon when Atlas turned off the lights.

Blue stops looking at Keith. They were holding eye contact for way longer than he was comfortable with.

"Now we'll take a fifteen minute break for all you eager fans to place their bets and for our skilled racers to prepare for the next round." Zarkon pauses. "Does anyone wanna take a guess at what's next?"

He points his microphone up in the air in front of him, signalling for the fans to respond. Every member of the audience shouted "Racing!" And with that, Zarkon left and the trick racers returned back to their teams.

"Atlas, was it? That was awesome!" Blue said excitedly to Atlas when he returned back to the Altea area.

"You're Blue!" He responded, also rather excitedly.

"That would be me, yes. You've heard of me?"

"Duh, who hasn't?"

"Hmm, fair point. I am pretty famous."

Atlas and Blue laughed. Atlas seemed like a great guy actually, Blue could get used to having him on the team.

"Alright enough with the chit chat." Lotor began. "I just got the racing line up."

The racing line up was sent to one member of each time at random by Zarkon and it explained how the races will work and what teams are racing first.

"Well? What's it say?" Asked Luka, impatiently, after Lotor had been staring at his phone for at least a minute now in absolute silence.

Lotor didn't reply, instead, he just looked at his team with a blank, yet horror filled, expression.

"If you don't spit it out right now I'm going to punch you." Blue stressed.

"There's only one race."

"What?"

"What do you mean there's only one race? Isn't there normally at least four or five?" Asked Atlas.

"Yeah, there is. Every year is the same. Two surprise rounds and two or three structured." Luka replied.

"Well looks like Zarkon had a change of plans." Lotor said, clearly angry.

"Show me your phone." Blue demanded.

Lotor, surprisingly, didn't challenge Blue. He passed his phone over straight away. Blue knew this couldn't mean anything good. Hesitantly looking at the phone, his face dropped. He also stated silently at the phone for about a minute.

"Not you too!" Luka shouted.

"Blue? What does it say?" Kei asked.

Lance looked at Kei, then at the rest of the team standing with him. "It's just me and Keith."

"Are you being serious?" Luka asked.

"He is." Lotor responded. "I guess Zarkon really wanted to see you race." 

"Wait, is this a bad or good thing? I'm not following." Kei questioned.

Everyone looked at him, faces blank.

"Right, okay, understood." He added.

"This cannot be happening right now." Blue stated, stressing.

"Look, Blue, its not that bad. You were gonna race him at some point anyway." Luka said.

"Yes, but not now! I thought it would be the last race of the event!"

"Well, technically it will be. First and last." Atlas said, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

Lotor rolled his eyes. "Stop being a baby. You challenged him, so own it. You're a good racer, everyone knows it. Just get out there and crush it."

"Woah. Lotor, did you just say something remotely encouraging?" Luka laughed.

"Not happening again." He replied.

"You know what guys? Lotor is right. I am a good racer. I will crush him."

Everyone cheered as Blue walked towards the centre of the parking lot. The crowds were going mental after the plan was announced. They couldn't wait. Blue spotted Keith, also walking towards the centre. He looked, hm, sad? Worried? Stressed? Blue couldn't tell. He just looked like a more defeated version of his usual self. This wasn't at all how Blue imagined this to go when he posted that tweet.

He thought he'd be excited, more confident, happier. But instead he just felt embarrassed. He was confident he could win, sure, but that he would win was a different thing entirely. Blue knew the odds were completely 50/50 and he hated it. Why were they both so good?

Blue was praying to get it over and done with already. He wanted to just get in his car and race. But Zarkon had to make it difficult, because that's who he was. Master of making things way more difficult than they should be.

When they both reached the centre, standing about three metres away from eachother, Zarkon finally broke the silence.

"As you all know, I have decided to make a change of plans this year, thanks to Blue's very brave and very forward tweet last night."

The crowds screamed and cheered. Blue couldn't believe this was happening. He was so embarrassed, but he couldn't let that show. He had to stay proud.

"Let's see what our talented young racers have to say about the up coming life changing race they're about to do." He said, giving a microphone to Keith and to Blue.

Neither of them said anything, they both just stood in silence, staring at the ground.

"Tough crowd." Zarkon joked.

After another minute, Blue couldn't take it anymore. He knew he had to say something to keep the ball rolling and bring the attention back onto himself. He couldn't leave the event being a loser.

"What's up beautiful people!" He shouted to the crowd.

They all screamed with excitement.

"Are we excited to see me absolutely crush Keith?" He asked.

Again, the fans screamed even louder. Keith was shocked at Blue's comment.

"In your dreams." Keith finally spoke.

Blue turned to look at Keith and took a step closer to him. "Oh yeah?"

"Mhm. Pretty sure the fans were rooting for me last night anyway." Keith said, and a second later regretted it when he sensed that hurt Blue. He didn't mean it, he was just playing along for the fans.

"Whatever dropout."

Keith refused to say more. He just half rolled his eyes and dropped the microphone to the floor.

As if on cue, the second the microphone hit the floor, Police sirens came blasting down the road.