Chapter 1 Do or Die (Fireheart318)

It seemed like everything was destroyed.. The biggest battle in the history of Chima had happened a few days ago, and there was lots of cleanup work to do. It was Ezim’s turn to repair the vehicles, he didn’t dislike the job, after all, everyone had to do it. After a short while, he’d  finished repairing all the interceptors and jet bikes, and was working on the speedorz. He finished them in only an hour, after all, he was a mechanic and inventor.The only thing left by now were the mechs, huge robotic vehicles. Most people thought mechs were powerful machines that dominated at war, and aided equally in times of peace, to Ezim,who had the worst luck around them, they were nothing but big, metal pieces of pain and accidents.

He got to work on Ethza’s mech first, there was a damaged armor plate on its knee. He was starting to sever the remaining welds, when out of nowhere, it golfclub punched him off the Eagle Spires. He couldn’t flip over in time and fly away. After a few more seconds, he was under water in a lake.

After a few minutes, he was back at the spires and starting to weld a new armor plate on. He finished that and moved on to recalibrating the controls. He made it through the weapons and arm controls and started the flight controls. Right on point, so he didn’t get a black eye upon landing. He tested the movement controls; forward, backward, left, right, up, crouch and jump were adjusted to equivalent 1.00, then added +3.25 since Ethza prefered to move fast and had quick reflexes. Once everything was complete, he jumped off the spire and landed perfectly, then face planted, exactly what happened last time.but then he had to wait three hours for someone to rescue him, as he couldn’t get the cockpit hatch open. He’d started counting the hours by making tallies using his combat knife on the windshield by the time Ethza had flown by and seen the mech laying down on its hatch, she knew, from her many battles in mechs, how bad and dangerous it was to be stuck face down, the arms weren’t powerful enough in the exact position they came to rest in to push it back up onto its legs.

It didn’t end like that this time, instead, after a few steps, Ezim had gotten the hang of it and was starting to move faster and faster, even breaking into a run. It was then when he hit a root, tumbled head over heels and was launched out of the cockpit and hit a tree face first. He’d destroyed the windshield and probably bent the legs and detached the mounted auto pulsar gun. He could tell Ethza wouldn’t be happy.

Three days and hundreds of bandages and lost feathers later, Ezim had finally finished repairing all the mechs except for Ethza’s, which he was still trying to put back together without getting his neck snapped in the process. It turned out he had done more damage to it than he thought. The power source was damaged, all of the arm and foot joints shattered, both legs were bent, the radio was destroyed, and there were giant talon marks in its back from when he had picked it up with an interceptor. Thankfully, Ethza and LezTez had offered to help, otherwise, Ezim thought he might be vaporized before he finished. Finally everything was repaired, everything except the windshield. He was still a little cautious around the mech, and Ethza offered to calibrate it herself if he told her what to do. Ezim accepted. After a few minutes, everything was done and polished. Ethza was still a little confused about why Ezim went through the windshield, it should be reinforced and shatterproof, she blamed Eglor, whose job it was to make repairs last time.

The two went and confronted him and when Ezim got to the part where he went through the windshield, Eglor said he’d triple-checked it, even throwing tools at it. “That explains the dents” Ethza said, “I knew something was up.”

It was Chi day, two weeks had passed since the Final Battle Against the Ice Hunters and the market was overcrowded by the new tribes. There were faces Ezim thought and in some cases hoped he’d never see again; Scorpions, bats, spiders, sabertooths, mammoths, vultures, and ice bears.. In addition to the new tribes, there were two unexpected tribes; the Phoenix Remnant, a decent sized group of phoenix warriors that hadn’t flown into the sun and bees, who a lion elder claimed to see start, when a bee landed on an orb during a harvest.

As Ezim roamed through the market, he stopped by the lion weapons booth. The lions, eagles and ravens were competitors in the weapons business, but there were no hard feelings, in fact, some of the eagles’ weapons were based off the lions’. The ravens were selling vehicle parts and building supplies, a wise move considering that half the buildings in Chima were destroyed. He was about to buy some gears and a can of oil when something caught his eye.

A Mk.4 shatterproof windshield, the same kind used on eagle mechs and interceptors, and it had small holes in it, as if it had already been attached to something. He quickly flew off and spotted Ewald talking to Eris. Probably about the race, he concluded. Ethza was over by the ice bear booth, pointing at what looked like a set of giant, icy claws.

Within a few minutes, Ethza, Ewald and Eglor, who had to stay behind as a punishment for the windshield. He explained the predicament quickly as they flew across the market. Ewald addressed them first, and said someone could’ve been badly injured, or worse, killed. The ravens, as expected denied.

“Well, how do you explain that?” Ezim challenged, pointing to Ethza’s mech, which still didn’t have a windshield. “Anything can break if it’s hit hard enough.” Ezim took a step back and reached for his combat/ utility knife, which he always kept in the center-back pocket of his holster. “I’ve face planted off the Eagle Spires and it hasn’t broken!” Is this really necessary,? Just give us the freaking part already! Ezim wanted to yell, but that wouldn’t do anything. “And during training, once,I ran into a tree at full speed with a Mk.3 and it didn't break!” Ezim could tell Ethza was almost at her boiling point.

Ewald had to have seen the drill holes and said, “How do you explain the scuff marks? What about those drill holes? And ravens never put an eagle seal on things.” “And isn’t that Eglor’s signature?” Ethza added, she had just given the ravens all the evidence they needed and at that moment one of the ravens lunged for Ewald, but Ethza had already knocked him away with a single punch and he slid to a stop at Ezim’s feet.

He drew his knife, he had no intention of using it, but the ravens had made it clear they wouldn't give up without a fight. He bent over and held the blade about three inches from the raven’s throat, the other ravens quickly surrendered and gave up their loot. He holstered his weapon and took the parts he had selected earlier just to give the ravens a taste of their own medicine while Eglor had carried off the windshield with an interceptor. By now everyone in the area was staring and they all knew fights weren't incredibly rare on Chi day, but if the ravens tried to double cross someone, that’s usually what happened. “Sheesh! All that trouble for a windshield” Ewald exclaimed as  everyone walked away.

The race was relatively uneventful, Flarzarrak, the leader of the phoenix remnant won the golden chi, but Eris was a close second, Worriz trying to pass her but she blocked him every time. Ewald looked proud at the end of the race, the phoenix were hard to beat, and starting in the back of the field of nineteen other racers with tensions running high after a huge war, and in the first organized race in months wasn't an easy thing to do.

“Next month’s race is a big one!” Cried Lagravis, the lion king, “The semi-annual tag team race! With two riders per tribe, this race is always chaotic!”

Finally! Ezim thought, ''I can’t wait to test out my speedor in a race! I’ve been working on it for five months now! I just hope nothing goes wrong.''