Sitting on the concrete floor of the bar, wrapped around the base of the table, was a tall, long-limbed soother alien. He held on to the pole like he was holding on for dear life. He wasn’t on my minimap, and he had a notification over his head that saidLinus. Tourist.I couldn’t examine him further. I’d been hitting him with my foot, but I’d thought they were Louis’s legs. I pushed slightly, and I could tell his form wasn’t fully there, like with the adjutants on the previous floor.
My eyes first caught the T-shirt, which was a nude image of Elle with the words “Stay Frosty, Boys” across the top in Syndicate Standard. The second thing I noticed was the fanny pack. The third was the massive, poorly drawn tattoo of Elle’s face on his skinny arm.
“Hi, Elle’s fan,” Donut said after she recovered. She moved to the floor. “Why are you under the table?”
“Because that’s where little perverts sit when they ask stupid questions,” Elle said. She didn’t elaborate further.
“Hi, Donut,” Linus the soother said, waving shyly.
“Why is he here?” I asked.
Elle sighed. “Because originally there were supposed to be five hundred tourists on this floor, and after each heat, one lucky tourist would win ‘extra access’ with their preferred racer each day. And since E.T. here was the only moron to show up, guess who wins by default.”
“Elle is my favorite,” Linus said.
“Yes, we can see that,” Donut said, sniffing at him suspiciously. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. Is that shirt authorized fan merchandise?”
“Oh, yes,” Linus said, his voice a whisper. “I run the center system chapter of Elle’s Snow Cones, which has the contract for her fan merch. Now, you better stop talking to me, or I’ll get in trouble again.”
“Uh, okay,” Donut said, jumping back to the table.
“What about Zhang?” I asked. “He’s not here? Tran?”
“No,” Imani said. “Zhang says Li Na isn’t really talking to him. She killed almost all of the other teams in their heat. I guess we’ll see next race if Prepotente’s theory about having to race other crawlers is correct.”
“Tran is stuck in his garage,” Louis added. “He had a rough race, too, but I don’t know the details. Some of his spider legs got wrecked, but I guess his gremlin is fixing it for him. He said he has a hearse for a car.”
“What is Zhang and Li Na’s car?” Donut asked as she chewed on a cherry.
“Not a car,” Imani replied. “They went biological. Zhang says it’s an octopus-like creature.”
“An octopus?” Donut asked, crinkling her face. “That sounds absolutely revolting.”
“What about you guys?” I asked Chris, who sat stoically next to Imani. A pair of crawlers I didn’t know very well sat next to him. It was two women, both named Erin. His team name was “Chris and the Erins.”
“What is your vehicle?”
“A semitruck with a trailer,” one of the new crawlers said. Her name wasErin Stratos. She was a human. A level 66Moodright, but I didn’t know what that meant. Some sort of mage. She was covered with glowing tattoos.
The other crawler was namedErin Gregory, and she was also human. She was a level 69Swiftie, which, much to Donut’s dismay, was a dexterity-based knife wielder. I hadn’t met her, either, but I’d heard of her. She’d been one of Florin’s. She’d killed orcs by the hundreds during Faction Wars.
“A big rig?” I asked. I wasn’t so sure that was much better than the scooter.
“It’s big but slow,” Chris added.
Imani grinned up at Chris and bumped him with her shoulder. Her skin sizzled a little when she touched him, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. “Kinda like you.”
Chris’s rock face crinkled into something resembling a smile.
Donut: DID IMANI JUST NEG CHRIS?
Carl: I don’t know what that means, but she’s just teasing him.
Donut: OMG, IMANI IS IN LOVE WITH CHRIS!
Carl: Don’t you dare say anything.
“What did you guys get?” I asked Louis.