An elf enters a street-race tournament to escape a corrupt city trapped in endless night.
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|| Voltyss is one of the last-standing cities caught in the Evernight, an endless night that spread across the land when the moon and stars fell from the...
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The next days are a blur of progress in the garage behind the Bitbucket.
I helped Gidget work on the zoomer every day while Tiny tweaked the coding for the gigacube. Gidget tinkered in the hood and under the zoomer, removing parts, welding them, and putting the pieces back together. She'd tried to explain to me how energy flows through each connecting part, working together as one, while the other, high-tech parts enhance the vehicle as a whole. But the more I watched, the more it seemed like a puzzle with seats and wheels.
Macon popped in and out of the garage during the week, sometimes with a few anxious looking Starfoxes, sometimes alone. But each time he strolled in, he'd say something quippy to Gidget or Tiny—even Zero, who obviously never spoke back—and he only gave me an acknowledging nod.
It didn't matter. He doesn't really matter in the scheme of things after all. Yet this change still bothered me like an itch I couldn't ignore. I've ran through the scenarios of all the things I could've done wrong and the only moment that seems to have any relevance is the Starcatcher. Was I wrong in taking it? Macon's persuasion could've only been a test—a test I might've failed. But I wouldn't let it bother me. I couldn't. There are more important things to worry about, things that don't involve a reckless mage playing my emotions like a rigged game of cards.
Today he sits on a stool at a wobbly-looking work desk pushed against the far wall. He is still and quiet—which for him is as strange and out of place as a Nightstalker in the light. No matter how much I tell myself to stop worrying over it, my eyes are drawn to him every time he's in the room. His presence is nearly impossible to ignore.
"You've got to be kidding me," Gidget groans from under the zoomer. She pulls herself out and sits up on the small rolling cart she frequently uses to slip in and out of the narrow workspace between the zoomer and the ground. Grease is smudged across her forehead and the freckles on her cheeks. She throws her wrench to the ground and lets out a string of curses that makes Zero lay down and cover his snout with his paws in a clear attempt to hide.
I'm afraid to ask, but I do anyway. "What is it?"
Gidget sighs. "Furyon-oxide. The booster tanks are empty. I could've sworn they were full a few days ago. Actually, I know they were. I don't forget." She stands up and puts her fists on her hips, glaring over the roof of the zoomer toward Macon. He glances at her as if he just noticed she was in the garage.
"What?" he asks with a shrug of his shoulders. "Don't look at me." I swear the star on his foxtail tattoo winks at me.
I glance to Gidget and assess her narrowed eyes. If looks could kill, Macon would be dead on the floor from the venom in her gaze. I want some of the damage for myself.
"I smell something fishy going on, Falcove," I say, forcing Macon's eyes to finally fall on me. If he wants to be a jerk, then two can play that game. "First the Nether slip-up, now the missing furyon. Are you saying this is just a coincidence?"
