Skies over the wasteland
Chapter 1: Birth of a Hawk
In a canyon that stretches for many miles, this is the stage for the final race of the world championships. Only the best racers in the world remain now, and today a new champion is crowned.
Eight jets wait at the start line, tension is high in the air as the racers and spectators alike wait for the start of the race. All the racers look around, checking out the competition, most popular among the other racers was a young pilot was named Leon Crescent, Flying a jet named “Blue Hawk” and if he won this race he would become the world champion then, he would begin to chase his real dream.
Leon looked to his right, his friend and rival Beast was looking back at him grinning mischievously, he gave Leon a quick thumbs up before looking to the front again. Leon smiled as the start lights came on; all the racers fired up they’re engines, and the crowd cheered in anticipation.
The final light went out and all the racers stormed away from the line, Leon was perfect off the start and pulled into the lead.
“Gotta’ keep cool, gotta’ keep cool.” Leon said to himself inside his jets cockpit “We’ve got to do it this time Hawk!” The young man was nervous; he had crashed more than a few times in the past on this course, but this time he had to win. The course was called ‘Avalon: The requiem.’ It started in a deep canyon with a lake at the bottom, the canyon itself that got thinner as it went then lead into a series of winding tunnels, followed by an all out burn to the finish.
The size of the canyon made it a bit hard to maneuver but Leon was in the lead so he only had to worry about keeping it that way. They all blew past long bridges that spanned the canyon, weaving around corners and trying to avoid pillars of rock. One of His competitors came up close behind him, sliding into his slipstream, Leon did a quick weave and roll trying to shake him off but he was still right behind him “Okay then, try this!” Leon pushed up the throttle and flew in close to the ground, his opponent was still right behind him.
Leon smiled and weaved through some rock pillars, once again in an attempt to shake him off. His opponent narrowly missed one of the pillars and decided to back off “Yeah, that’s right!” Leon spoke in a sly fashion as he pulled back up to a higher altitude.
Leon looked around quickly, Many places could bee seen where other jets had crashed, they were clearly visible in the rocky sides of the canyon. As they closed in on the tunnels up ahead Leon’s heart began to pound quickly, he tightened his grip on the flight stick. This was where things got tricky.
Leon shook off his nerves and dove into the tunnel without any hesitation, so determined to win he barely even slowed down, this was very dangerous, however it gave him quite a lead on his opponents “I’ve got to do this!” He began to weave in and out of the passages throughout the tunnels, it was dark, and outcroppings of rock were everywhere.
Images of his past crashes in those tunnels flashed through his mind, breaking his concentration for a second. He narrowly missed a pillar of rock as he flew around a corner “Whoa!!!” Leon yelled in surprise. He grunted and shook the images out of his head and grabbed his throttle lever and pushed it all the way up.
Full speed through the Avalon tunnels? That’s a great way to get yourself killed, even with all the measures in place to assure a pilot would never die again. Even all that wouldn’t do much in the case of a headfirst full speed crash…
Leon continued weaving through the tunnels and came to the exit, just as he did one of his opponents flew out of the tunnel with him. It was Beast, him and Leon had been the biggest rivals since day one, and now was the time to settle that rivalry. The two jets came up beside each other, Beast motioned ‘Bring it on!’ and Leon smiled devilishly in response.
They both hit the afterburners at the same time, now it all came down to this; it was all up to the jets now. Leon was pinned into his seat by the force of the speed; this was what he loved most about flying, the pure speed. He did his best to keep the flight stick steady; at this speed even a wayward twitch could send the two crashing into each other.
With only fifteen miles to go the two were neck and neck, the others were nowhere in sight. An odd sound could be heard from Beasts jet just before a loud explosion rang out. Leon looked around quickly; it had come from Beast’s engines. He had over-strained them, which caused one of his afterburners to blow out.
He quickly fell behind, trailing black smoke as Leon sped into the lead and took out the win.
“YES!!” Leon yelled in excitement thrusting one of his fists into the air almost hitting his jets canopy, the crowd below cheered as loud as they could. A mans voice came through the loud speakers in the surrounding area “And the Blue Hawk takes out the win! We have a new champion ladies and gentlemen!!”
Leon swung the Blue Hawk around and landed in the winner’s circle, he released his restraints and opened the canopy then climbed onto the back of his jet and threw his fists in the air victoriously as the crowd cheered below.
The young pilot took off his helmet and let his shoulder-length hair fall. He shook his head quickly and slid off his jet onto the ground where a man was waiting to interview him
“Leon Crescent! The Blue Hawk! You’re the new word champion, congratulations!!” The man spoke excitedly.
“Thank you!” Leon began “But Avalon is no joke, and my competition just made it more challenging. They’re all great pilots, a real thrill to fly with! The work I did on my jet last night couldn’t have come at a better time.”
“You’ve just been named the greatest racer in the world, how do you feel?” The man asked.
“Great! But. Sadly, that’s going to be my last race.” The crowd fell quiet for a moment “Now I’m moving onto the combat league!!” Leon raised his fist in the air as he spoke, and the crowd cheered once again.
“What’s your motivation for that?” He asked.
“I dream of flying with the legendary pilot ‘Mobius’ I intend to fight against him and be named the greatest pilot in the world, not just the greatest racer.”
“Well, I wish you luck in that, and I’m sure your fans will be behind you all the way! Isn’t that right people?” The crowds cheered in response as Leon climbed back into the cockpit and got ready to leave.
“Yo! Hawk!!” A voice called from bellow. It was Beast, his hair scruffy and unruly as always “Don’t think I’ve given up yet! You were just lucky today! Someday I’m gonna’ kick your a** and prove I’m better than you!” He directed his fist toward Leon in a challenging style and smiled.
Leon also directed his fist to Beast “Heh! You can try!” The two exchanged eye contact and a quick laugh before parting ways.
Leon sat back in the cockpit, put his helmet on and did up his restraints then closed the canopy “We finally did it Hawk… And soon, we’re gonna see just how far we can go!” He fired up the engines and took off “This is just the beginning…”
A few weeks later…
