~ Chromatober 2024 ~

Day 27: Cage/Defiance

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Series: RQ

AU: GEARS

Characters: El (Elemental)

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"Now folks it's time for the daredevil you have all been waiting for! It's the death-defying man, the stunting wonder, our shining star of the show and the son of the talented Galaxy Flier himself, ELEMENTIUM RIDER!!!" As the announcer finishes introducing me, I rev the engine on my bike, then speed forward, up the ramp, and into the cage.

My tires hit the bars and the cage is closed behind me as I start to do my routine. I drive around the circular cage, the crowd cheering on my gravity defying act. After a few laps around the cage, I decide to do my favorite thing to do.

Let go of the handles.

With my hands spread back behind me, the crowd erupts in cheering, a few starting a chant. "El-e-ment! El-e-ment!" I grin from under my helmet and take back a hold of my handles, increasing the speed at which I was going. From under my suit, I could feel my heart racing from the adrenaline.

Over and over I drove around in circles, feeling my head spin a bit from the momentum. After I felt like I was reaching my limit, I speak into my helmet. "Ok, getting dizzy enough, I'm gonna slow down and someone release the cage door." I hear a buzz from my speakers set into my helmet and a voice answer me. "Roger that, El."

Slowing down my speed a bit, I wait until I notice a  guard waving his hand at me. I hear the gate creaking down and angle towards it. Right as the gate  hits the ground, I drive out of it, the crowd cheering my name. As I got to a certain point, I hit my brakes and skid to a stop, feeling my head swim.

My pit-crew runs over to me as I'm taking off my helmet and cold air hits my skin.  Yet my head wouldn't stop spinning. "El, take a moment, you don't look too hot." I turn to see Sabs standing there, his hand on my shoulder as I lean forward on my bike a bit. I just nod to him, trying my best to not let the dizziness get to me. "Yeah... I know, Sabs." Letting out a sigh, I run a hand through my sweaty hair, ruffling it a bit.

Eventually I feel good enough to hop off of my bike, but I still felt a bit shaky. It's not because of the adrenaline or fear, but... I swore in between the chants, I could hear the chain on the cage starting to crack. It was nerve-wracking, but I'd have the crew check it after the crowd cleared out. After all, I didn't want that thing snapping for anyone else, let alone myself.

"Hey, Nate," I say as I wave over one of my pit crew members. The black-haired guy runs over to me, taking off his pit-gloves. "Yeah, El?" He stops once he gets close enough and I point over to the cage. "Check the cage. I swore I was hearing that thing start to snap when I was doing my stunt in there.

He nods and grimaces. "Yeah. It was, undoubtedly. I could hear it over your headset mic. I'll get the repair crew on it right away." With a thumbs up, I nod to him. "Thanks man."

He nods back. "No problem, man. You have a good rest of your night! That last stunt looked amazing!" A grin crosses my face as Nate walks off and I look to Sabs who was holding my dufflebag and helmet. "Ready to head home?" Sabs tilts his head at me as I nod in reply to him. "Yeah, I've had enough for tonight. I'll pick up my bike in the morning."

With that, I walk out with the brunette and towards the parking lot.