---Stargazer--- Episode 2

~~~Stargazer~~~
Episode 2
First Examination: Arboreal Chaos
Part One


     Shira grimaces at the pistol she had been given, shaking slightly, “why did they have to give us guns?”

     “Would you stop worrying about it already?” Sean replies, “They’re only loaded with paint.”

     “I know, but I hate these things!” She moves to put the weapon back in her holster, but her hand slips on the handle, causing a mad panic as it hops between her hands and the air. On the third lunge she makes for the weapon, her fingers completely miss, sending it spiraling to the rocky ground where it bursts with sound.

     A hand reaches to the back of his blue head. Feeling something moist he sighs, looking at his palm only to confirm the presence of green dye.

     Turning slowly, he almost shouts, cut short by Mya running past him, shouting something about monsters.

     Sean manages to catch her by her short hair, causing her legs to jerk out from under her body and sending her straight to the root covered ground.

     “It’s only the second day! What’s your problem?!”

     “Nothing… I just like running around screaming!” she answers before laughing nervously, standing up.

     Sean narrows his eyes, smacking her in the back of the head and leaving a bump, “Then lay off the caffeinated drinks!”

     A loud snap erupts from a darker portion of the forest, causing Shira to emit a squeak and hide behind her two companions. Sean draws his pistol and begins to focus on the trees, searching for anything moving in the shafts of light raining through the canopy.

     Suddenly Mya’s weapon goes off, the paint bullet whirring past Sean’s ear and colliding with a white-haired woman as she emerges from behind a cluster of bushes.

     “OW! Right in my freaking eye!” she shouts, clutching the bandage crossing over her the left side of her face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

     “All systems nominal,” a synthetic voice reports to the woman inside of the cockpit.

     Flexing the fingers of the robot’s right hand, she moves its hulking body onto the stretch of black pavement.

     The races had only a single goal: it was to be a no-holds-barred dash for the checkered flag, one lap to get the pilot up to speed and three in which combat could take place. Even though combat elements weren’t practiced so much anymore, mostly due to pilots involved dieing in horrible accidents, the races still managed to keep the morale of Earthers high.
That was the only reason they existed, to take people’s minds off of the ring.

     An announcer’s screams cascade over the crowd, enticing them into a riot-like trance, their cries of excitement pulsing the very steel walls.

     “Ready?” she asks, the light still red.

     “As always,” Three rhythmic flashes of yellow precede a constant green.

     Sparks rage at the angular feet of her robot’s chassis, the banshee wail drowned by the crowd and the roaring jet engines that rend the air with white flames. All is quiet inside of the black cockpit, her feet moving like that of an ice skater, slow, graceful, and powerful movements.

     Slowly the frame of the bulky, heavily armored beast begins to orbit around her teammate’s extremely thin and graceful alien, their motions pulling each other along the course by breaking the air.

     Red metal passes by both of them, the opposite team.

     Their robots weren’t very different: one assault-class and one sprinter-class.

     A white line passes under their feet, cameras taking snap-shots of the black and white racing robots as they close the distance between the red leaders.

     The battle round had started.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Wiping the last portion of paint from her face, the white haired woman shifts her attention to the three teenagers in front of her, “what’s a group of kids like you doing in a forest?”

     “We’re participating in the academy’s examination… and we’re not kids: we’re eighteen, legal adults,” Sean replies, slightly angered by her words.

     “I apologize, I did not realize your ages.”

     Shira directs a hand towards a white triangle on the right side of this newcomer’s head, “Excuse me for pointing… but what is that?”

     “They’re my ears…” the visible triangle erects into a full wolf ear, the second joining it from a mat of hair, “sometimes they lie flat or hang…” a somewhat bushy white wolf tail unwraps from around her waist, slowly moving back and forth, “I thought that would be pretty obvious for someone with animal traits such as you.”

     Shira’s head drops to view the ground.

     Scratching the back of her head, the newcomer thinks over what she just said, “Forgive me… I don’t watch my words very well…”

     Mya shuffles around the circle, practically leaning on the white haired woman, “So what’s a sexy wolf-girl like you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”

     “I’m out here because I’m trying to find a town for some new equipment and directions,” placing a hand on Mya’s face, she gently pushes the red-head away, “and I’ll take that ‘sexy wolf-girl’ comment as a compliment... despite how creepy it was.”

     “If you were thinking that we could point you in a direction you’re out of luck, we have no idea where the nearest one would be.” Sean says, changing to the subject concerning him the most, “however…”

     “However what?” she says, intrigued.

     “If you help us out here, help us pass our entrance exam, I’ll see if I can sneak you aboard the plane we took.” He holds a hand out, waiting for the female to accept his offer.

     Her hand clasps his, a handshake noting the deal is made. In an instant she lets go, turning in the opposite direction, crouching with every muscle tense.

     “What are you-”

     She silences Sean with a hand, grasping the handle of a very small, broad-edged sword, the blade of which is in a sheath strapped to her back.

     “Don’t use that! We don’t want-”

     “Food… now shut up before you scare it away…” having finally silenced him, she crawls forward with all four of her limbs, like some type of animal, disappearing into the brush with the faintest of sound.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Weapon systems unlock from their containment on both of the craft, ready to be drawn and fired at any time by robotic hands.

     “Not worth our time…” the aquamarine woman says back to her teammate at the last minute, causing the large holsters to clamp shut on the armaments once more.

     They both push forward, soaring between the opposing team, leaving the red machines behind in a shower of sparks.

     It didn’t matter what the opposing pilots tried, they wouldn’t be able to stop the two this late in the game: the energy reserves of their craft were completely depleted from the continuous acceleration the amateur pilots had put them through.

     A checkered flag waves as they pass it by, skidding as multiple cables snap onto the machines, dragging all four robots to a halt.

     This would probably be the last race they participated in; they had enough money with this win to begin searching.