The moment the two teams entered the second lap, it was like a switch was pulled. Team Feriland, who had held the lead throughout the entire first lap, immediately switched to Assault mode, turned on their heels and went into defensive postures as Team Door Buster pounced without a second’s hesitation.

It was clear to Ma’Z now that the two titans had been burning their boosters just for this moment. Once they switched modes, their ability to keep pace, fell drastically, but momentum and abilities tailored just for this encounter were now picking up the slack.

Of the two titans, one had a long hook it was using to trip up and grab hold of the opposing rounder. The other titan was shooting a gel-like substance to gum up his opponent’s legs in an attempt to get it to drop its speed.

The maneuver’s worked. Soon, both rounders were within reach of the titans, and it quickly turned into a high-speed boxing match.

The two scouts had long gotten a sizable lead away from their prospective teammates, but they were no less as engaged as their counterparts in trying to dismantle one another.

Ma’Z looked on with an expression of horror and fascination, not sure of how to process what he was seeing.

“See, you knew that it was a mix of different race types, but what you failed to consider was that that included the combat modes as well,” Heaven said.

“H- How does this even work?” Ma’Z asked. “They’re all easily pushing 300 kilometer per hour, and they’re just balls out fighting each other! How can they even steer with such precision while fighting?”

“It’s programmed, dummy,” Heaven said as if it were obvious.

“What, like it’s scripted?”

“Only partially correct, but no. It came with that data orb you got when you registered. There’s a program in there that keeps your Frame within the boundary lines of the track, so you can do things like battling without worry.”

“Is there an override?”

“Of course. You can jump right off the track if you want. Wouldn’t recommend it, though they have safeguards in case someone really does.”

“For someone who barely pays attention to racing, they sure seem to be well informed,” Garrus interjected.

“What? You didn’t think I woiuldn’t do my homework when my street racing fiancé announced he was going to join the circuit races?” Heaven countered.

“Ah. Good point,” he said.

“Speaking of, you going to be ok, Ma’Z?”

“Ziiiip it. I’m looking up all the race types now, so I can figure out how the hell I’m going to deal with this nonsense,” Ma’Z replied.

“Oh, ok. You do you, honey,” Heaven laughed.

Ma’Z, for his part, went back to ignoring the two as he furiously searched through the racing compendium for race types.

Trammel, Relay, Battle, Jump, Drag, Free-for-all, Points, just to name a few. The race types seemed to run the gamut, and Ma’Z was now staring at the track in front of him like some kind of Frankenstein monster. He found that the track was completely modular, able to be shifted and reconfigured at a moment’s notice.

Modes could be switched on a dime in a race type called Voter’s Call. Participants would literally get random prompts for what they wanted to see next and vote for the preferences in order to spice up the event. The result could turn a Trammel into a Jump or a Battle, while maintaining a trammel’s setup.

Seeing Team Feriland and Door Buster go at it now, it was clear now that no amount of preparation could prepare them for the amount of chaos this kind of racing demanded. He concluded that aside from smaller circuit types, they all had to be using highly tuned all purpose gear to account for all the ways each race could differentiate from moment to moment.

“This is going to be… different,” Ma’Z said.

The two teams entered the third lap, their battle still raging, as the two scouts commanded a sizable lead.

Coming into the fourth turn, Team Door Buster’s scout did something Ma’Z would’ve never predicted and split into two separate vehicles. The inside half, slammed into Team Feriland’s scout, pushing it into the outer half.

The split scout, then turned Feriland’s scout into its puppet as they slowed drastically, waiting for their comrades to catch up.

Team Door Buster took that as their signal as they pushed into the center lane and dropped into drive mode to break away from their opponents.

Feriland’s rounders were quick to respond, quickly changing to pursue, but the titan bodies of Team Door Buster made it all but impossible to push past them.

They were around the fourth turn in no time, lined up with Feriland’s scout.

Using the lead titan’s draft, the rear titan sling shot forward, ramming into Feriland’s scout, causing it to go flying. No sooner that it was airborne, the other titan was there to intercept it.

The titan returned to assault form, catching the scout and launching it into its oncoming companions.

The pair were too late returning to assault form to catch the scout as it hit them with enough force to put all three out of commission.

Ma’Z sat forward, looking at the wreckage on display and said, “What the hell? That’s legal?”

“Pretty much. The final lap is almost always free-for-all. The no kill rule is always in effect, and our cradles will shield us from all but the most damaging blows,” Heaven said.

She pointed at Team Feriland, pointing out how the three were scrambling to get themselves picked up and said, “Looks rough, but our Frames are insanely durable. Our cradles have built in inertial dampeners to keep us from irreparably scrambling our brains from how much we get knocked around, so scenes like this are commonplace."

Ma'Z looked somewhat stricken by what Heaven was saying, and with a sympathetic smile she said, “You’re a gifted racer to the core, honey, but this is still a combat game first and foremost, and this? This is the new meta when it comes to pvp. So, it’s a good thing you’re more than just a racer. You have the skills to be both.”

Ma’Z still looked somewhat saddened by the news. Watching Team Door Buster cross the finish line and listening to the sound of the crowd as they erupted into cheers, brought an odd sense of calm to the street racer.

Blowing out his frustration, he looked at the smiling faces of Team Door Buster and gave a silent cheer for the winning team.

This wasn’t at all what he was expecting, but he had to admit it looked fun as hell.

A moment later their platform began to descend back to the ground floor. Garrus bid his goodbyes to Heaven and Ma’Z before departing back to his fraternity. Ma’Z roamed around the grounds for a bit longer, familiarizing himself with the different event sites and general layout of the venue.

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“So, you ready to go?” Heaven asked.

“Yeah, I think I’ve seen all I wanted to see for the day. Not sure how I’m going to go about forming a team yet though.”

“I’m pretty sure if you just put your name out there, you’ll get players practically frothing at the mouth to join.”

“Point. The problem, however, is that I’ll end up with a ton of applicants to sort through, and even with my reputation in the real, I don’t think it’ll take much of a leap for anyone to realize I’m just a rank novice in this world.”

“I mean, if you want, I could manage for you? You have the talent, and I have the connections. You can put your name out there and I can do the sorting for you?”

The pair had already left the track, and were headed back to the fraternity. From what Ma’Z could see on his map, they were a good twenty-minute drive away.

When Heaven offered herself up as his manager, he was taken aback, and he couldn’t really understand why.

“You’d do that for me? Just to let me race?” he asked.

Ma’Z could see Heaven visibly shrug in his viewport.

“I mean, why not? I asked you to come under the conditions that you’d get to experience the racing life while you were here. I wouldn’t be selling my product very well if you end up stonewalled from the jump just because you couldn’t find two reliable racers to join you.”

“Heaven, I don’t even know what to say that. It just feels so… out of character, I guess.”

“What? Are you trying to insinuate I never help you?”

“I’m not saying never, but I’ve lost count of how many times you’ve simply not been there when I needed something from you.”

Heaven’s attention turned from the road to look directly at Ma’Z who continued before she could react and said, “And I get it. Your work is important. Not just your job, but your career. You have other responsibilities, and I knew that it would eat up your time. But I can’t act like it didn’t sting from time to time when the few times I asked you for anything, you’d agree to it, and then just not be there.”

Heaven turned away. They were driving slower now. They were on a back road that had a much more direct route back to the fraternity, but even then it was several lanes wide, allowing for cars and Frames to easily steer around them.

They were passing through part of the agricultural sector where rows of corn had been newly planted, and water was misting through the air as large sprinklers were spraying across the fields in a waving pattern.

Drone lights were placed at regular intervals to illuminate the streets, but they were spaced so far apart that there were large swaths of darkness between them, forcing them to rely more on their headlights than on the drone lights themselves.

In other words, it was insanely dark out.

“What are you trying to say?” Heaven said into the darkness.

Ma’Z scanned their surroundings, trying to calm himself and keep things from spiraling too far into digging up old wounds. Even with the drone lights, they seemed to do little to drown out the sea of stars in the night sky.

Taking a calming breath he said, “I’m saying I’m happy. I’m happy I came. I’m happy I got to get a glimpse of what you’ve been doing in here, and that you’re making me a priority, even though I know that’s always been the case. Just not in the way I craved.”

“Guess we both spent so much time trying to look out for each other that we forgot to actually spend time with each other,” Heaven said.

“Yeah. We did,” Ma’Z replied.

The two drove the rest of the way in silence, content to listen to the ambient sounds of the rhythm cicadas and watch the zig-zagging lights of blazing dragonmoths.

Heaven’s guilt had built to a crescendo, and she couldn’t stop mentally kicking herself for getting so caught up with work that she let six full months just slip without ever noticing the person she loved was just sitting at home. Alone. And she couldn’t even be bothered to give him a few minutes before logging in.

In the end, it was always the little things that left the largest ripples.

Ma’Z wanted to say more. He knew he wasn’t the least bit faultless, and he just heaped all of his insecurities onto her without taking any accountability. Sure, she was gone all the time, but he could’ve joined her whenever. Instead he often met her with bitchiness and passive aggressive snark and harsh criticism whenever something around the house didn’t get done.

He did all of that when he could’ve been sharing this world with her from the beginning.

VRMMO’s had become the number one outlet of escapism for much of the world. The world had collapsed in many ways, and between a mini apocalypse, and an alien invasion, how could people not jump at the chance to go where none of that shit existed?

Though many came to escape, others came to build a better life. Just like getting a job out in the real, there was money to be made in virtual as well.

Heaven’s jaunts online brought in a ton of money. In their other work, they made enough that they could live comfortably, but by doing this, they could not only retire comfortably, but retire early.

But in a way, it was still escapism. Heaven left the world, and Ma’Z haunted the tracks. Neither of them could stay away, and neither of them wanted to. But at least now, Ma’Z understood he could’ve done both all along, which she had been trying to tell him along, and he wouldn’t listen. From his point of view, he had no right to get mad that she wandered when he refused to make the leap to meet her halfway.

They were both idiots.

The minutes had ticked by in a flash, and they were soon back in the fraternity garage. Heaven had disembarked first and was waiting for him by the elevator. By the time Ma’Z reached her she said, “We still haven't had dinner. Want to swing by the cafeteria first?”

Ma’Z did his best to put on a genuine smile. They were both forcing it, but he nodded and said, “Yeah. I’d like that.”

Soon, the door opened to the lift, and Heaven went to enter before being dragged back into a bear hug.

Ma’Z threw his arms around her, unable to hold back the tears any longer.

“I fucked up,” he said. “I should’ve been here. I should’ve been more supportive.”

“We both fucked up,” she said. “We never should’ve gotten so wrapped up in our own bullshit that we forgot to be together.”

“That’s earth talk. Keep that up and I might forget you’ve gone native.”

“Not my fault I love the culture.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too.”

For the next few minutes they just stood there and cried into each other’s arms.

They cried and let out all of the negative emotions they had been holding onto for the past few months, and for the first time in a long time, the two of them felt a tremendous weight leave their shoulders.

When they finished, they did their best to cover the wet spots that covered both of their shoulders and tried to fix their clothes.

More than a few awkward laughs passed between them as they fixed each other’s hair and straightened each other up.

Heaven called for the elevator again, and when it arrived, they entered hand in hand. The ride up was short, and the halls were decidedly empty, which was expected for that time of night.

When they reached the cafeteria, though, War and Vivi were sitting at a table together silently enjoying a meal.

War was the first to notice their intrusion and said, “Ah. There’s our shining star. Everything good princesa?”

Vivi silently reached over and slapped his arm.

“Que haces, chica? I was just saying hi.”

“This is not the time, War. Read their auras. They’re not here for a chit chat,” Vivi said.

“No mames. That voodoo is your bag woman. Anyway, Heaven. Everything good?”

“Yeah. We’re good. Ma’Z here bagged himself a legendary weapon part. If I can make a breakthrough in the forging process, I think we’ll finally be able to get Oraria to shut up.”

“Oh Dios, if only it were that easy. Speaking of… Ma'Hiz, right? Oraria was looking around for you a little bit ago. She asked for you to come see her when you got time.”

Ma’Z nodded and said, “Thanks. It’ll have to be tomorrow. I think after we eat, we’re going straight to bed.”

“Straight to bed?” War said with a grin.

Vivi punched him in the arm, harder this time.

“Pinche… What now, woman?” he said.

“Don’t be a pervert,” she said.

Heaven started to laugh, and Ma’Z followed soon after.

“Sorry Vivi. He’s right. Not straight to bed, but definitely going to bed.”

With the faintest hint of a smile, Vivi shook her head, but continued to eat her food.

“Alright, babe. Let’s get something to eat. War? Vivi? See you at the meeting tomorrow?” Heaven said.

“Yeah, we’ll be there,” War replied.

“Meeting?” Ma’Z asked.

“Yeah. I was going to tell you a little later, but we got something of an officer’s meeting tomorrow. It shouldn’t be but a couple hours, but if you want to go sightseeing or whatnot, I can meet you afterwards?”

“Yeah. Sounds like a plan. Gives me an excuse to meet Oraria… Wait. She’s probably an officer too, isn’t she?”

“She is, but she usually ditches. If it isn’t about fighting, she’s not interested. Tera takes care of her books, so she rarely has to keep track of her work.

“Nice. Well, since that’s settled, what say we finish these meals and go clean each other’s backs?”

“Careful, I might like what you touch.”

“Definitely counting on it.”

“Definitely want you to.”

“Going to make you say moist.”

“Ew. Shut up,” Heaven laughed.

“Nuh unh. Naughty on the brain. I’m going full pervert.”

“Eat your food first.”

“Oh, I’m going to eat alright.”

“Fuck. I walked right into that.”