'Hello, Ladies and Gents, Men and Machines, and welcome to the forty-fourth annual World Champion Hoverboard race! It's a beautiful sunny day thanks to the new, clean-burning BioFuel engineered by our sponsor, Dow'Living. Improved daily. They say it'll be safe to sit under the big ball in the sky for another fifty years folks, so let's enjoy it while we can!'�

The commentator of the hour seemed in especially high cheer, and he certainly had a right to be; this year's lineup was simply spectacular. All the right people from all the right places around the world had shown up at Stanly P. Shuart Stadium, not only promising the closest of races but bringing out the loudest and most excited of crowds as well. Hopes soared as people cheered, whistled, clapped, and bought overpriced stadium food that filled the air with tantalizing aromas. A good day, indeed.

Raine Kasavis held her head high as she strode form the locker room to lane number sixteen. She flashed a peace sign and a brilliantly white smile at her raging audience. They only made up a small portion of the crowd'after all, Raine was representing Lunasta, one of the newer moon colonies, and the race was held on Earth. Nonetheless, it was enough to get her blood pumping. After all, she was going home tonight with the World Cup.

Once in her lane, she activated her board and let it hover next to her as she made some last minute adjustments to her gear. Raine checked over her wild outfit with a flush of pleasure. Everything she wore, from her tube-top to her vest, from her astonishingly short skirt to the knee-high boots, was a rainbow of color. Only her short, flippy hair was a rather noncommittal shade of warm gray, but that had been done on purpose. Raine the Rainbow Rider'that's what they called her. Most of the other riders had similarly outrageous outfits. At top speeds of 180 miles per hour, the crowd had to have some way of distinguishing one rider from another.

Suddenly the shrill blast of a whistle rang through the air, flooding Raine's blood with adrenaline and excitement. She kick-flipped her board, a 380 Arc with extra side thrusts added to the antigravity drive, into a starting position and hopped on, safety locks catching around her feet with a snap. She loved the feel of floating anywhere from a few to several hundred feet above the ground with nothing between herself and death but a thin piece of metal. Exhilaration was food enough for her.

The announcer began speaking again, mostly in slogans and advertisements, and small hologram screens appeared before each of the eighteen riders. They first showed a bird's eye view of the course and then proceeded with a digital run-through. Raine eyed it with raised eyebrows. She'd never run something this complicated before.

Oh, she'd done sand pits and rocky terrain (the moon had enough of it) and certainly air-suspended rings, but forests and waterfalls were something new. After all, there weren't very many of either left on the planet, and what was wasn't open to hoverboarders. The spectator stands rose on both sides of the course for the entirety of the race, protected only by hologram shields and reinforced glass. Anyone who hit that was in for a nasty crash. Raine made a face as the hologram screen disappeared and the riders began charging their boards for launch.

'Hey Rainbow,'� said a low female voice, 'see you from up top the winner's circle.'� Raine turned to the lane on her right and saw a short rider clad in a suit made of pink spandex. It was Falira the Pink Panther, a notorious cheater and infamously dirty boarder as well as this year's American rider. Raine couldn't see the woman's eyes behind her helmet visor, but she could see her smirking pink lips and felt her competitive instincts rising.

'In your dreams,'� Raine said, violet eyes sparkling (genetic manipulation was quite popular these days; Raine's parents had been sure to make sure their only child was as special as possible). As she said this, the announcer rambled on about the rules of the race. Raine mouthed the words along with him, having long since memorized the necessary spiel.

'This year's course, you'll be glad to hear, is the hardest one yet created!'� Sure, thought Raine, you say that every year. This was the first time it actually might be true. 'First we start out with the dunes'the highest rising to an amazing two-hundred feet'then the forest, the mountains, the falls, and everyone's favorite, the high sky route! Riders, take your places!

'Three, two, one, GO!'� There was a deafening blast of a horn from above, and the race began.

Raine instantly zipped ahead of more than half of the other riders, laughing as they got caught in her rooster-tail of sand. The dunes were far from hard terrain, but boarders were required to stay below a certain altitude or face disqualification. Behind her someone got a little too close and took a nosedive that sent him spiraling. No chance of me doing that, Raine thought. I'm gonna win.

It wasn't until they reached the trees that the trouble began. There was no longer any clear path, and the remaining riders split up as far as possible from one another, each hoping to find the shortest way through the dense tropical trees and hanging creepers.
Raine was doing fine until she started hearing the screams'�and the laughter. She guessed (rightly) that Falira had finally taken to some of her dirtier tactics, here where the judges couldn't see it. Twisted branches and tree limbs aside, Raine had enough to worry about already. She hoped Falira wouldn't come her way.
But of course, she did. Falira pulled up suddenly from the shadows, twirling about her fingers an electric-blue headset that could have only belonged to Sakura Hamazaki, the previous first-place racer.

Falira snickered and shortened the distance between them to a dangerous level; at such close quarters, the antigravity drives could short each other out and send one or both boarders plummeting to the ground. Raine moved to pull away, but there were too many trees. She would just have to hold her ground.

'Still set on winning, Raine?'� shouted Falira. 'Because it would be so tragic if you just happened to hit a tree.'� Without warning she slammed her board into Raine's, giving her a jolt that nearly flipped her into a corkscrew. She just barely maneuvered away from the tree, so that only a few small branches slapped at her face smartly, leaving a long red line down her cheek. Raine gritted her teeth and regained balance.

'I won't give up that easy Falira,'� she said. The other boarder was no more than a pink blur at her side, but she could still easily ruin everything Raine had worked for in the last few years. With a kick, Raine accelerated her board and rocketed through the forest. Such speed was dangerous, but Falira was even more so.

130 mph.

140 mph.

150'�

Raine finally made it out of the trees when the speedometer inside her visor hit 170 mph. Below her now lay the Falls, a dangerously churning rapid course of white and green water. Cool spray jetted up behind her, turning to diamonds in the glare of the sun. She listened for the answering splash of Falira behind her, but it didn't come. Raine giggled triumphantly. She had left her opponent in the dust.

'And the first to exit the perilous woods is number sixteen, Raine the Rainbow Rider! Just look at her go, folks! Not far behind her now is Falira the Pink Panther. What a surprise! Who expected these two to come out on top?'� The announcer boomed cheerfully. The crowd, once again visible, screamed and raved, many of them chanting Raine's name over and over. For once, though, her mind wasn't on her fans; it was on the fact that Falira was catching up.

Well, there were ways to throw the Panther off her tail. Going faster and taking sharper turns were the key. She sped through the Falls, sprain falling around her like rain. If she were going slower, she might have seen the rainbows that appeared with it.

Suddenly, as she was flying over the Big Fall'riding vertically in an exciting rush of downward air'someone dropped in front of her, coating her visor with water. Vision obscured, Raine pulled her board up into a standard position and slowed down, wiping the water and foam from her helmet. Behind her the Falls rushed, threatening to crush her beneath the pounding water. Just another inch and'�

'Catch you later, Rainbow!'� yelled a whiny voice. Falira. Raine's temper rose. Ignoring the announcer's comment on her stop, she boosted into turbo mode and flashed ahead. The thunder of the Falls rang in her ears, but she could still hear the zing of Falira's board up ahead. Both riders dropped into the mist at the bottom of the Falls, and when they emerged, the race was neck-to-neck.

'Looks like it's going to be a close win! Only one more course is left for our first- and second-placed boarders: the high-sky route! Three hundred feet above the ground, our boarders will fly to the finish line. Only a few miles to go! This is it!'� This is it, thought Raine, this is my last chance. She glanced sideways at Falira, who looked like the pressure of the race was catching up to her, sweat and all.

There was one breathtaking moment as the launch pad shot them straight up into the air, and then all around her was blue sky. Huge suspended rings of blue and red hologram shimmered up ahead in the heat of the high stadium. It was through these that they had to pass in order to remain in the race.

'Just you and me, Pink Panther,'� Raine said. Falira was still at her side. 'Time to step it up!'�

Falira smirked. 'How about you step this up!'� She threw herself into a barrel roll above Raine's head, creating a vortex of wind that sent her into an uncontrolled spiral. She was barely able to return to normal before the passing of the next ring, but she did it. Raine was certain that she could win, if only Falira weren't such a dirty
boarder!

Then an idea began to form in her head.

'You call that stepping up? You'll never win that way,'� called Raine. 'Cheaters are never winners'�especially when they wear pink spandex.'�

It worked. Scowling her rage, Falira brought her board over to Raine's and once again attempted to jolt her out of running. Raine used all the will she had to keep her board steady, one eye on the last ring. Beyond that was the finish line.

'All your wins were nothing. If you hadn't cheated, you wouldn't even be here. At least I deserve the chance to win the World Cup,'� Raine continued taunting her opponent with a smile.

'I will win, no matter what you think of me!'� Falira yelled and shoved her board even closer, this time intending for a harder, longer hit. The second she moved, Raine activated the double thrusters on her board, lending it more power. There was a loud crackling sound, and blue bolts of antigrav matter flickered between them.

Falira's scowl turned to an 'o'� of surprise as her drive faltered from the shock and stopped completely. Raine's main drive began to fade as well, but the thrusters were still going strong. Falira dropped out of sight almost instantly, plummeting towards the ground with a piercing scream. Rescue teams would be waiting below to catch her, but Raine honestly hoped they would miss.

'See you from up top the winner's circle!'� she shouted one last time and urged her board on jerkily as her main drive failed completely. She hurled herself across the finish line at the last moment, tumbling onto the platform amidst a sea of applause.

The World Cup was hers!

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