CHAPTER 4 – TEST DAY

Two months had passed since getting the call…

Johnny had arrived early that day waiting to talk at a scheduled press conference for the morning. The excitement level was high for everyone waiting around, including Johnny.

Johnny looked at the time. It was 9:25 AM. The press conference would start in five minutes. He waited nervously as the minutes ticked by. He could only think how the whole thing of Banzai Bangers racing in a virtual reality was a crazy idea.

The bombshell of a news story only happened a week ago to everyone who wasn't involved. The reaction from the public and others was a media craze. How they had managed to keep it under tight wraps without leaking any information, was beyond Johnny.

The clock finally hit 9:30. Johnny sighed as he tried to calm himself with his heart pounding from excitement. He made his way onto a stage to talk to a whole bunch of reporters and fans alike. It was overwhelming seeing so many people as he walked out. He was used to the crowds by now but the excitement made him more nervous than usual.

Johnny walked over to the microphone to talk. Reporters began asking him questions. He tried his best to answer the reporter’s questions. His nervousness and excitement made him speak way too fast. He answered questions almost nonstop for twenty minutes before things settled down as someone else took the microphone.Johnny was able to sigh with relief walking away, now that the press conference was over.

His day was only getting started and he needed to focus. He was already having anxiety about the whole test session as butterflies were spinning in his stomach. The conference only added fuel to his nerves.

Johnny got off the stage and headed for his next stop. Which would be the testing sight. I need something to focus on, hopefully there is a vending machine somewhere around here. I know there was one near here, Johnny thought to himself. He had to search for a little bit before he found one. Johnny stood in front of the machine as pulled some spare change out of his pocket. He fumbled around for three dollars in quarters going through the change. He grabbed the quarters as he put the rest back in his pocket. He then selected an option. He pressed a button and out came a drink in a black aluminum can. He grabbed the can pulling back the tab as it hissed to take a sip. He let out a huge sigh as continued to the testing area.

Johnny took small sips of his energy drink as he thought back to how lucky he was to be chosen. He was the oldest driver in Banzai Bangers and had a lot of experience under his belt.

Johnny’s thoughts were interrupted by Terry who found him by chance. “Man, I can't believe how lucky you are to get to test this thing out. I’m so jealous, at least I get to take your spot now for the team.”

Johnny just let him ramble on. He had a soft spot for the kid, but the poor kid just wanted to weasel his way into the spotlight. He had tried to go for Johnny on many occasions. Johnny would always outsmart him. He did everything he could to keep him out of trouble.

The two had small talk as Johnny was way too focused on the test. Their talk was briefly interrupted by a scream. Johnny looked to see two fans running his way.

"Oh my gosh, it's Johnny!" A blonde woman screamed in excitement.

“I thought he had retired. I’m not sure how he looks so good at forty-five still.'' Another fan who was a redhead.

Johnny stopped and turned to look at his adoring fans. The blond eagerly shoved a poster into his arms. There was no need for a pen, every fan knew he always carried one on him for situations just like this. "Can you sign this?", she asked, fluttering her eyelashes prettily. She needn't have bothered; he would do it. He always did. It was part of what made him the most beloved racer on the circuit.

Taking the pen from his pocket with a flourish, Johnny signed it and gave it back. The redhead had pulled out a t-shirt for Johnny to sign. He quickly signed it as he was in a rush. “I would stay and chat, but they need me over at the prototype vehicle soon.”

Johnny was quick to dismiss himself after the two fans left him. He wasn’t against seeing his fans, but was worried he would be late if he had to stop every minute to be signing autographs with the number of people who showed up.

He continued to walk with Terry as they walked for the testing area. A few drivers congratulated Johnny as they passed by while others wished for his demise. He shrugged off most of the negative comments, only to stop when he ran into Brandon of all things.

Brandon was waiting just outside of an area where they were showing off a second display model of the prototype. It was more for promotion use. He wasn't easy to miss with his jet black hair, wearing his favorite purple jacket that was covered in skulls and crossbone. While other spots were empty. One spot had Johnny's name written on it that didn't have a skull and crossbones. It made him stick out like a sore thumb. His dried and scarred face helped that even more.

Brandon approached Johnny with a devious smile, getting up in his face with both them at eye level. “I hope you end up trapped in that virtual world,” Brandon said to Johnny, who was causing a scene. His commotion was getting attention from the crowd and everyone around. People were getting nervous knowing a fight could break out at any moment with Brandon’s unpredictable nature.

Brandon shoved Johnny, causing him to stumble, spilling his drink right onto Brandon’s face by accident. Brandon cursed and sneered at Johnny as he threw a punch from the accident. “Have you lost your mind or something?1” Johnny yelled, ducking to avoid the punch.

Terry, meanwhile, could only watch as the two went at it. Johnny kept stepping back or blocking Brandon’s punches. “You know the rules about starting fights Brandon,” Terry yelled a warning at Brandon from the side, hoping to deescalate the situation, to no avail. Brandon ignored Terry as he still continued to throw punches.

Thankfully security saw what was going on and came to break it up. Brandon was escorted out of the track in handcuffs for the day after his abuse with Johnny. He let out a sneer as he was led away, while a few others followed Johnny and Terry as they broke up the crowd.

Johnny had to sit down with Terry after the confrontation. His nerves had been rattled by it. He needed to relax. He had to get himself another soda. Since he had spilled the one he had on Brandon after the altercation. He took a huge drink thinking from the energy drink about Brandon, before leaving just about half left in the can.

“Did Brandon seem more hostile than usual, Terry?” Johnny asked, looking at his teammate, setting the drink down.

“Now that you mentioned it. He did seem more agitated than usual. I only see him like that after a race. Maybe he was just envious of the new opportunity you got?” Terry replied.

“I guess that could be it. He always wants to get in the spotlight. Although, I hate it when he wears that jacket though. Wearing it with everyone he has ever killed in this sport.” Johnny could only shiver.

Johnny talked to Terry about a few other things before his mind decided he needed to get Brandon out of his head. The man always intimidated him in some way. He decided to watch some of the usage of the promotional prototype vehicle and the surrounding displays to get his mind off things. The test session wouldn’t take place for another two hours as well.

Looking at the setup of the promotional area was quite elaborate to Johnny. It featured a small replica of the racing realm on a table that was off to one side. The model track had information on the layout, design, etc. It mostly consisted of various tracks and arenas that ran through an endless plain. People were gathered around the attendant of the model track asking questions.

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Johnny overheard one of them about what would happen if someone drove towards the walls of the world. They were told the driver would come back to the default starting point. If that failed they would be spit out of the portal as fail safe.

Johnny focused on the other areas of the exhibit as he got bored looking at the model track. One section showed screens of footage of the tracks in use from a video game stand point. He wasn’t surprised they would have footage of it to promote the idea.

He looked next to where the promotional display of the prototype was being held. He was more focused on the part that showed the car’s design from the inside out. The car was quite elaborate in its design.

The chassis of the prototype vehicle looked like a mid-2000s stock car body. Johnny didn’t know why the campaign team went with it. He was just told the team wanted to go with something retro, from what Johnny was told from Joseph over the past two months from the phone calls.

The prototype was powered by a plutonium reactor that was housed in the front double cased in a Lonsdaleite cube. The reactor fed a matter-antimatter core that was housed in the trunk of the vehicle. The core wasn’t as protected, since it was very durable on its own, but was encased in a carbon steel box for some protection. The core allowed for the prototype to be able to change the appearance of the car. While also being able to fix it as well. The core also functioned as a survival asset. It could create anything and everything imaginable. The true gem that made it special was the dimensional drive, to let the prototype transcend dimensions.

This was all monitored on a terminal in the middle of the dash. It let the driver run diagnostic checks as well as various other commands. To help the driver further, the vehicle was also equipped with a state of the art AI to help as copilot, if things got to dicey.

After a few minutes of sitting around. One of the assistants for the exhibit gave a few demonstrations of the prototype.Johnny could only watch in amazement as the chassis was repeatedly hit over and over with heavier and tougher objects. Things included a bank safe, machine gun fire, and torching the frame with a flamethrower. In the end nothing left a scratch leaving the crowd in awe. Johnny could only chuckle from their reaction knowing that the frame was made out of Lonsdaleite. The material was 58% harder than diamond with a hexagonal atomic structure.

People asked if they could see how the other features worked. They were informed that the promotional area was just for looks and not uses. They would have to see the prototype in action in the portal when testing started. Everyone was displeased with some people grunting or yelling, with not seeing the changes firsthand.

After about an hour of watching everything, Johnny felt more comfortable and relaxed enough to head to the testing area. Johnny and Terry both got up and made their way to the testing area. They were escorted by security so no other alterations would unfold.

A few people tried to follow him after the guards into the testing area but were pushed back. They were warned the area was off limits to only certain personnel.

Johnny eventually found the paddock with the prototype and some of the staff waiting for him: his crew chief Jimmy, busy working with the other technicians, and his younger brother, Jamie.

Johnny looked over at Jamie and waved. Jamie waved back sitting in a custom wherl chair made for him. He liked having his brother around. He helped Johnny wherever he could. He once competed long ago in Banzai Bangers, but his career was cut short in a horrific accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. As a result Johnny had his brother stay away from the limelight when he raced. He didn't want his brother to become a target of his racing.

To help with Jamie’s problem after a few incidents where Johnny had to step in. Johnny and Jamie both faked his passing later on from the wreck. Jamie had to take up a new identity as Johnny also had to relocate him to a new home and such. To the outside viewer, he was just another mechanic of sorts. Only those close to Johnny knew the truth. Not even Brandon knew. He had many enemies around the track.

Most were from a racing organization called The Road Rage Renegades. The team consisted of criminals. A few drivers in the past had tried to take Johnny's life and only his. He never understood why as they soon disappeared without any trace.

Johnny spent a while pretending to help Jamie learning new things only that he was catching up. He then departed to have photoshoots with the prototype.

Johnny was thrilled with the new opportunity. He put his energy drink down inside the prototype as he got ready for photos. He made all sorts of poses and gestures as the photographers took photos for the next twenty minutes before Jimmy walked over.

“The executives want us to get started. The remaining photo shoots can wait until after. A lot of money has been put into this project and we need as many results as we can,” Jimmy said.

“Besides, you never know when the next race will be your last. The sponsor is paying big for this one.” Jimmy continued to rant.

“Yeah, I know,” Johnny replied, not really caring about the money since he was so rich.

Johnny got up from the photoshoots that featured D.R.I.F.T. on the prototype. He sighed with disappointment. So much for the publicity. Couldn’t they have waited a few more minutes for me to finish. He just shrugged the thought off as climbed into the prototype. He put on his helmet and got into the car. “A new adventure awaits,” Johnny said in a prideful tone to himself as he was starting to put on his harness and buckles.

His crew chief radioed to him. “Can you hear me?” Jimmy asked.

“Loud and clear,” Johnny replied as he was getting adjusted into the prototype.

“I hope you read the manual on how everything works,” Jimmy said to Johnny.

“I did, I spent four hours every day the last two months reading the manual on troubleshoots and everything,” Johnny replied with a groan.

“Okay, the first thing I want you to do is say Al. It will bring up the prototype's AI,” Jimmy said.

“Al” Johnny said, which was followed by a low humming noise. He looked over to his right to see a light blue ball that was translucent. Johnny looked at the hologram in awe.

“Hello, I am Al. The prototypes, AI. I’ll double as your copilot,” The AI said.

“Al seems a bit dull, don't you think?” As he yawned. “I call you Albert. If you are okay with that?” He asked.

Albert replied. “I will do as you command.”

For fun Johnny swatted his hand back and forth inside of Albert. “Would you stop doing that please?” Jimmy said over the radio.

“Sorry,” Johnny replied back.

“Next I need you to go over the safety checklist,” Jimmy continued to talk to Johnny.

Johnny was given a checklist over the radio before he was able to go onto the track. The checklist consisted of safety checks, control gages, survival equipment, and other items. Albert confirmed the double check of the checklist. After about 10 minutes he was given the okay to start the engine and head to the track.

Johnny turned the ignition on, and the car hummed with a soft rumble. He pulled away from the pit box and onto pit road.

“Okay, once you ran a few laps averaging about 88 mph hit the dimensional drive.” The crew chief said.

“Understood,” Johnny replied, feeling uncharacteristically nervous.

Johnny took to the track and ran a few laps before getting up to speed. Johnny could only feel more nervous as people were now watching him along with cameras from news stations and the like filming him. He almost jumped from hearing a sloshing noise as he went faster. He had realized he had left his energy drink sitting in a makeshift cup holder he put it in. He had to be careful not to spill that.

“Jimmy, I have a slight problem. I left my energy drink in the prototype. Should I pull back into the pits to get this out of here?” Johnny asked as he let off the gas.

There was a long pause before Jimmy responded.

“No, the executives said to continue. This test trial is all of the essence there is.” Jimmy replied with a sigh.

Johnny sighed as he picked up the pace again as he drove. He was having to be careful to do his best to keep his drink from spilling. It didn't help that the track was bumpy from all the concrete pours over pothole patches. “Driving any faster on this and I’d say the suspension would break if it were normal.”

Johnny was soon averaging 88 mph. He then hit the dimensional drive to ascend into the virtual test track. As the car started to shift into the new world. A sudden powerful gust of wind caused Johnny to lose control of the car. He began to fishtail. Johnny grabbed the wheel to regain control. He quickly recovered but not without smacking the wall.

The slight smack of the wall caused him to elbow into the makeshift cup holder that the energy drink was in. It flew and spilled all over the dimensional drive from the nudge. It caused the dimensional driver to short circuit and spark.

Johnny heard a loud bang come from the trunk of the prototype. He cursed as began to fizzle. Flames started spewing from the dimensional drive as Johnny tried desperately to avoid going into the new reality. He hit the brakes hard on the car. It was no use as he slid into the portal. The car exploded into a flash of light.

Everyone at the testing area watched as Johhny disappeared into the portal. They switched the channels on the monitors to tune to Johnny's feed but only got static. Johnny was now gone…