“Let us know when we are online,” Veego said to the dado.
Nevva stood next to me and spoke quietly, while looking at Veego and LaBerge.
“How are you?” she asked. “Ready” was my answer.
“You know this is an incredible opportunity,” she said. “The right words will put you over the top.”
“Yeah,” I said. “And the wrong words might bury me. Stop talking and let me think.”
The service dado nodded and signaled for the two to begin.
LaBerge put on his biggest smile and sang, “The time is growing near, the games are almost here; the challengers are ready, and now their words you’ll hear!”
Veego added, “This will be one of the most difficult choices you will ever face. Who best to place your wager on? We’ve done our best to educate you about the two challengers, now it’s time to hear from them, in their own words. First we will hear from the champion. Challenger Green.”
The service dado panned over to Challenger Green, who stood with his hands on his hips.
“You know me,” he said brusquely. “You know I don’t lose. I’ve been watching the games my whole life. Blok has never seen a champion as powerful as me. I’m going to be the first challenger to retire undefeated, and then tour Quillan to promote the games for Blok. When you think of Blok, you think of power and you think of me.”
He turned arid jumped down off the platform. The service dado quickly panned back to Veego and LaBerge, who seemed surprised by Challenger Green’s quick exit. I couldn’t have been happier about what he said. Nevva looked as if she were holding back a smile.
“That’s perfect,” she said. “He has totally aligned himself with Blok.”
Veego said to the camera, “And now we will hear from Challenger Red, the only challenger in history who is so confident, he actually asked to compete against Challenger Green. I give you… Challenger Red.”
The service dado whipped the camera to me as Nevva stepped aside. It’s a strange feeling to know that your image is being broadcast to millions of people. It was the biggest stage possible. I needed to make the most of it. I folded my hands in front of me and said, “You don’t know me as well as Challenger Green, but there’s something important you should understand. I didn’t come back to compete in the Grand X for myself. I could have disappeared and nobody would ever have seen me again. But I came here as a tribute to the people of Quillan.”
D. J. MacHale
The Quillan Games
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Veego and LaBerge give each other concerned looks.
“I’m here to prove that you don’t have to be big and powerful to triumph. I believe in myself, and I believe in the people of Quillan. And even though I know I will win the Grand X, I am asking each and every one of you to be brave, and as a protest against these brutal games, do not wager on the Grand X. Either on me or on Challenger Green. It’s the best way you can show Blok that you aren’t going to live by their rules any longer.”
“What?” LaBerge screamed.
Veego walked quickly to the service dado and pushed the camera off me.
“End this transmission,” she hissed at the dado. “Now!”
The dado hurried off the platform with the camera.
“How could you say that?” Nevva asked, faking surprise. “That was not authorized! The trustees will be very angry! I’m going to have to bring this up with them at once.”
Nevva hurried off the platform. Before she stepped down, she stole a quick look back at me, and winked. I had just kicked some serious Blok butt. Veego stood there, glaring at me, while LaBerge paced nervously.
“This is bad,” he clucked. “Very bad. We’ll be blamed, you know. How are we going to control this? Do you think the people will listen to him? What are we going to do?”
“We’re not going to do anything,” Veego said without taking her eyes off me. “Challenger Red will no longer be allowed to address the public. Beyond that, we will do nothing.”
LaBerge hurried off the platform, shaking his head fretfully and muttering, “This is bad; this is very bad.”
Veego took a step closer to me and said, “What are you doing. Challenger Red?”
“Just trying to get a little excitement going,” I said innocently. “That should get people talking, don’t you think?”
Veego stared at me for another moment, then turned and left. I wasn’t sure if I had gone too far. I didn’t think for a second that they would cancel the Grand X after all the buildup, but I couldn’t be sure.
There was one more event planned before the Grand X, and it was a big one. Challenger Green and I were to be paraded through the streets of Rune on the backs of two cars. The idea was for the people to see us in the flesh so they’d get all sorts of whipped up and excited… and of course make big wagers. Mark, Courtney, what happened that day was something I could only dream of. Up until that point, the idea of the people of Quillan seeing me and learning about me and believing in me as a symbol of their freedom was only a concept. It wasn’t real. I had to take what the revivers had said on faith. Though I had fully bought into the plan, somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if the people were going to really care. What happened that afternoon shot those doubts to pieces. No, it vaporized them.
There were three cars in the parade. The first held Veego and LaBerge, I was on the second, and bringing up the rear was Challenger Green. We stood up through an opening in the roof so we could be seen by all. A line of security dados marched alongside the procession in case somebody did something silly and tried to get at us. I figured that was a good idea, because the streets of Rune were pretty crowded.
At the very least, the security dados would be able to clear a path for the cars to get through.
What happened was bedlam. I can only liken it to one of those ticker-tape parades they have in New York City for sports champions and astronauts and whatnot. It was absolutely, positively nuts. People were everywhere. They were packed on the sidewalks, hanging out of windows, and perched on top of buildings. They were screaming, too. As the parade turned off the side street and onto the main parade route, it was like being hit with a wall of noise from a thousand jet engines. It was such a mad sea of faces, it was hard to pick out any one person, but the thing that struck me most about the people was that they were smiling. I saw joy in their faces. It was something I hadn’t seen at all on Quillan, except for maybe the lucky few who had won a wager on a game. These people were ecstatic.
There wasn’t any ticker tape falling, but there was something else even better. I can’t say that every person had one- that would be impossible to judge. But thousands did. Wherever I looked, I saw old men and young kids and women and every type of person you could imagine waving a solid red flag. Maybe I’m a little slow, or maybe I was just too stunned by the whole scene to realize what that meant right away. It wasn’t until I heard the chant that it came together. It was tough to make out at first, because it was like white noise, but soon enough I understood what they were chanting: “Red! Red! Red!” These people were chanting for me! The red flags they were waving were for me! To say this was unbelievable is too simple a statement. It was impossible.
Ahead of me LaBerge beamed and waved like he had just won the World Series. I don’t think anybody cared. Veego stood stock still, with a tight smile on her face. I don’t know what she was thinking. If I were to guess, she was calculating how much these fools would wager on the underdog, me, and how much her enterprise would benefit. So I guess she was happy.
Turning around, I saw that Challenger Green was probably the only sour-looking person in sight. He stood with his hands gripping the roof of his car. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the metal twisting in his fingers. Besides that, he was glaring at me. As they say, if looks could kill… there wouldn’t have been a Grand X. I would have been history right then and there.
I turned to face front. This was my moment and I wanted to enjoy it. If what was happening here in Rune was any indication, the revivers had done their job. The people were on my side. What remained to be seen was if they would take the next step and not wager on the Grand X. I suppose that didn’t matter much. This wasn’t about the betting. This was about creating a display that fired the people into action.
As great as the day was turning out to be, the best was yet to come.
The parade ended at the big, imposing Blok building. There was a wide balcony below the giant blok sign that looked down onto the street. We were quickly brought up there for a final event. On the balcony were me. Challenger Green, Veego, LaBerge, and a few of the trustees. Mr. Kayto wasn’t one of them, though I felt sure that Saint Dane was watching from somewhere. There were speeches and presentations and lots of blah blah blah about how exciting the event was going to be and how Quillan had never seen the likes of this and may never again and… who cared.
