Aurion Chapter 3: The Race (Part 1)

Mr. Xavier stood atop a raised platform, looking out over the collection of participants he had gathered for his race. They were an extremely diverse group, containing misfits and thugs from the slums, mechanics, engineers, and doctors from downtown, and even several corporate executives with top class cybernetics. They eyed each other warily, sizing up the competition. The difference in cybernetics ensured it wouldn't be even close to a fair race.

"Welcome, my esteemed guests!" Mr. Xavier called out, his voice booming over the crowd. "Today, you all have the chance to win something truly special. A prize beyond your wildest dreams. All you have to do is win the race." He gestured grandly to the obstacle course, which looked even more daunting up close. "The rules are simple. First one to the finish line wins. Use whatever means necessary. And remember…" He paused, his green eyes glinting with mischief. "There are no rules."

With that, he stepped back and raised his hand, holding it suspended in the air. "On your marks…" Naya crouched down into a runner's stance, her heart pounding in her chest. "Get set…" She focused on the course ahead, planning her route, her strategy. "GO!" Mr. Xavier's hand came down and the crowd surged forward, a mass of one hundred bodies all striving for the same goal.

Naya took off like a bullet, her mismatched legs pumping as hard as they could. The nano-motors in her right leg boosted her movement, propelling her forward at a speed that would have been impossible for her left leg to match on its own. But Naya had long since adapted to the imbalance. She knew how to compensate, how to use her right leg to give herself an extra boost while her left leg handled the finesse.

The starting line was pure chaos as people shoved and jostled for position. Elbows flew, feet stomped, and curses were hurled as the racers fought to get ahead. Naya kept her head down and focused on the course. She couldn't afford to get caught up in the melee. Her mismatched legs were already a liability - she didn't need to add any more obstacles to her path. She weaved through the crowd, ducking under flailing arms and leaping over fallen bodies. During her deliveries she often had to run through crowds to achieve the speeds she needed to earn extra cash. David paid per package, so at those times speed was all that was on her mind. Every single day of work had pretty much been training for a race like this.

*Thank you David!*

She mentally reminded herself to thank the reliable man in person after she had won whatever cybernetic implant was in the package she had delivered earlier.

Ahead, the first obstacle loomed - a series of climbing walls with handholds and footholds spaced at irregular intervals. Naya leapt for the first one, her fingers scrabbling for purchase. She caught a handhold and quickly began scrambling up the wall, doing her best to avoid other climbers. All around her, racers were scaling the walls with varying degrees of success. Some had clearly enhanced their upper body strength, able to pull themselves up with ease. Others struggled, their legs flailing as they searched for a foothold.

Her eyes remained on a swivel, understanding that the other participants were much more challenging obstacles than the walls themselves. Her awareness paid off, barely managing to catch sight of a burly man shoving his neighbor as hard as he could, who just happened to be directly above Naya.

"FUUCCCKKKK!"

The man screamed angrily while flailing out, trying to grab a new hold as his body fell.

Naya swung her body to the side, leaping through the air and barely snagging a new hold with just her left hand, barely avoiding the falling man. She looked up ahead of her, analyzing a new route.

*Iris, highlight optimal holds!* she yelled out inside her mind. A pleasant chime inside her thoughts signaled Iris's acknowledgement as several holds became highlighted in bright orange in her vision. The highlighted holds constantly changed as other competitors took them.

Naya followed the highlighted path with precision. This time, it was her time in the slums that aided her. Scaling buildings and climbing fences had always been a fun way to spend time with Trixie. Sometimes she used those maneuvers when making deliveries too. Or when running from the police.

*Almost there!*

The top of the wall loomed above her, only a few holds between her and the completion of the first obstacle. She reached out with her right hand and grabbed the next handhold. Just as she lifted her left leg, she felt a hand close around her ankle and pull. Hard.

She didn't have time to react. Despite gripping the handholds with all her strength, she was ripped off the wall like a bug and before she knew it, she was falling. The pressure on her ankle vanished as she fell down past the man who had yanked her off. He didn't look that strong, but obviously had strength augments. Naya only had a second to react. There weren't any holds in arms reach that weren't already taken by someone else. Her first thought was to grab onto the man that had pulled her down, but that wouldn't work. He'd just throw her off like she was nothing, the same way he threw her off the wall. Her eye level descended downwards as she fell, until she saw a viable solution.

Her assailant had his legs spread wide between footholds, exposing the outline of two large orbs beneath his loose shorts. Naya's hand shot forwards, closing around the perfectly presented squishy handholds to stop her fall.

*SQUISH*

"HNNNNGGGGHHHH!"

The man screamed like a banshee as Naya's hand clamped down on his balls like a vice. Her fall came to an abrupt stop, sending the man's voice up several more octaves, as her entire body was suspended only by the now shrieking man's testicles. Somehow, he actually managed to keep his grip on the wall even as his entire body froze up from ball-pain.

Naya couldn't help but smirk as she hung there, suspended by the man's tortured testes. She'd always found it amusing how even the most advanced cybernetics couldn't do a damn thing to protect a man's balls. They were still the ultimate weakness, no matter how much money someone had.

The man above her was screaming in agony, his face contorted in pain. His hands were still gripping the wall, but his arms were shaking, his grip loosening with each passing second. Naya knew she didn't have much time before he lost his hold completely and sent them both tumbling down.

She looked up, searching for her next move. There, just a few feet to her left, was another climbing wall perpendicular to the one she was on. If she could swing herself over there, she could grab on and keep climbing.

With a grunt of effort, Naya swung her body to the side, using the man's balls as a pivot point. The man howled in pain as Naya's swinging motion yanked and stretched his tender testes to their limits, her hand still maintaining its iron grip around his sack. Her momentum carried her over to the other wall, and she released her grip just as she reached the apex of her swing, launching herself towards the wall. Her hands scrabbled at the holds, searching for purchase. For a moment, she thought she might fall - but then her fingers caught on a jutting hold, and she hauled herself up and onto the wall.

"FUUUUUUUUUUCK!" The man shrieked, his voice several octaves higher than before. His hands finally slipped from the wall and he plummeted down, cradling his abused nuts.

Naya ignored his fall, already moving upwards with quick, precise movements. She reached the top of the wall and hoisted herself over, landing on the platform on the other side. She paused for a moment to catch her breath and check her surroundings. The field had thinned out considerably. It seemed like only about half the racers had made it past the first obstacle. Naya spotted a few stragglers still climbing, but most had either fallen or were stuck at the bottom, nursing their wounds.

Ahead, the next challenge awaited - a series of balance beams suspended over a pool all the way back down at ground level.

She wasted no time sprinting forwards and stepping onto the thin balance beam. Despite the seriousness of the competition and her focus, she couldn't help but remember all the times she walked across metal or wooden beams at abandoned construction sites with Trixie. The kind that were all over the slums they grew up in.

*It's just like the old days,* Naya thought as she strode confidently across the beam. *Except, y'know, with a bunch of strangers trying to push me off and a prize that could change my life.* She kept her eyes focused ahead, not daring to look down at the pool below. Falling into that would mean disqualification, and she couldn't afford to lose this chance. Not when she'd come so far. Around her, the other racers were struggling to maintain their balance. Some had opted to crawl across on their hands and knees, while others wobbled precariously as they tried to stand upright. Naya, on the other hand, moved with the grace and surety of a tightrope walker. A quick glance to her left and right informed her that she was catching up to the race leaders.

"Hey, watch it!" A woman snarled as Naya brushed past her, nearly knocking the woman off balance. Naya ignored her, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

Suddenly, a hand shoved hard into her back, sending her stumbling forward. Naya's arms pinwheeled wildly as she tried to catch her balance, but it was no use. She was going down.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

The same woman from before laughed as she watched Naya teeter on the edge of the beam. She had shoved her from behind and tried to step around her. A maneuver that would've worked if her foot hadn't caught on Naya's in her haste to pass Naya, sending them both tumbling off the beam.

Naya barely managed to twist in the air, snagging the edge of the beam with her fingertips. The woman plummeted past her, her eyes wide with shock and horror as she realized her mistake. She'd shoved her with both hands, which meant she didn't have time to grab the beam and save herself from disqualification.

"AAAHHHHH!" The woman screamed all the way down, until she landed with an echoing *SPLASH!* in the pool below.

Naya didn't have much time to pull herself back onto the beam. A man trailing just a little behind Naya noticed her predicament and hurried to catch up to her before she could pull herself up. Naya had only managed to get one arm up on the beam by the time he arrived.

"Sorry about this!" he apologized, rather sincerely, and began stomping on her hand and arm to force her off the beam.

"Fuck off!" Naya snarled in response as the man's foot slammed down on her fingers, crushing them against the unyielding beam. The pain was intense, radiating up her arm and into her shoulder. This was the second time in less than a minute that someone had tried to sabotage her, and she was seriously getting pissed off.

With a grunt of effort, she swung her entire body up towards the beam. Using her core strength, she managed to elevate her leg up and hooked her heel against the man's planted ankle as he went for another vicious stomp. He didn't even get a chance to realize what was happening before Naya used that hooked heel to pull his one grounded foot off the side of the beam. With his other foot suspended over the opposite side of the beam, mid-stomp, there was only one possible, painful, outcome for him.

*CRUNCH*

"AYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

He wailed with the voice of a 12 year old girl as he landed crotch first on the hard beam.

Naya couldn't help but let out a dark chuckle as the man screamed in agony, his voice at least an octave higher than before. She knew that sound well - it was the universal cry of a man who'd just had his nuts crushed.

"Told you to fuck off," she muttered, pulling herself fully onto the beam. She stood up, wobbling slightly as she regained her balance. Her fingers throbbed with pain, but she ignored it. She'd had worse.

The man was still stuck with both legs on opposite sides of the beam, his body folded over and trembling as he desperately tried to shift his balls out from under his own weight without falling. Naya stepped over him carelessly, not sparing him a second glance as she continued onwards. Ahead, the end of the beam was finally in reach. Just a few more steps and she'd be on solid ground again.

*I can do this,* she thought, her determination burning brighter with each passing second. *I can win this.*

She leapt off the beam onto the next platform, landing with a soft thud. She straightened up, taking a moment to catch her breath and assess the situation. In front of her was a massive slide that stretched across the entire warehouse, ensuring that all the racers had an entry point regardless of which wall they climbed and which beam they traversed. Various obstacles stuck out from the slide, promising pain and delays for anyone who slid into them. To make matters worse, the entire slide was covered in some unknown, viscous transparent liquid.

Naya didn't have time to hesitate. She spent three seconds planning a route, then, with a running start, she leapt onto the slide. Immediately, she was engulfed in the slick, transparent liquid. It coated her skin, her clothes, even seeped into her hair. It was slimy and sticky, and it made her feel like she was moving through molasses.

*Iris, can you analyze this stuff?* she asked, hoping her AI could provide some insight. It took a precious five seconds for the sluggish Iris to reply. Five seconds Naya spent floundering about, struggling to direct her body onto the path she had envisioned down the slide.

"Analysis complete," Iris responded, her voice echoing in Naya's mind. "The substance appears to be a type of non-Newtonian fluid. It will provide resistance when force is applied suddenly, but will flow smoothly when force is applied gradually. Essentially, the harder you try to move through it, the more it will resist."

Great. Just what she needed - a slide that fought back. Naya gritted her teeth and tried to relax, letting her body go limp as she slid down the incline. All around her, other racers were having similar difficulties. Some were trying to paddle their way through the liquid, only to find their hands and feet stuck in the viscous substance. Others were thrashing and flailing, trying to push themselves forward by sheer force of will.

Naya did her best to ignore them, focusing on her own path. She kept her eyes peeled for obstacles, ready to dodge or weave around them as needed. She spotted a large, spongy-looking ball up ahead, sticking out from the slide. It looked like it was made of some kind of foam, but Naya knew better than to underestimate anything in this race.

She shifted her weight to the side, trying to steer herself around the obstacle. But the viscous liquid had other ideas. It clung to her body, slowing her movements and making it difficult to change direction.

*Shit!* she thought as the ball loomed closer. She braced for impact, covering her face with her arms.

*THWUMP!* Her body painfully bounced off the spongy ball, veering her wildly off course.
*Fuuuuuuuuck!* Naya screamed inside her mind, wisely choosing to keep her mouth shut as the sludge splashed across her body. She instinctively shut her eyes, feeling a thin layer of the liquid coating her face. Blind and off her original path, Naya had only one option left. *Iris, get me through this!* She pleaded inside her mind, leaving her fate, her chance at winning the once in a lifetime opportunity to obtain whatever that top class augment was, up to the AI assistant that had screwed her over more times than she could count. Naya tried not to think about it and projected only hope and trust towards Iris. Maybe that'd help.

Iris's response was immediate, almost as if she had been waiting for Naya to call upon her. The darkness of her shut eyelids was suddenly lit by a bright orange line that swerved left and right.

"I have analyzed the obstacle course and calculated the optimal route," Iris announced, her voice calm and confident. "Please follow the arrows and trust in my guidance." Naya didn't need to be told twice. With her eyes still shut tight against the slimy liquid, she followed the line blindly, letting Iris guide her through the chaotic slide.

She could hear the other racers around her, grunting, cursing, or yelling in pain as they struggled with the viscous substance and slammed against obstacles. Some were still trying to fight against it, while others had given up and were letting the current carry them wherever it pleased. Naya tried to tune them out, focusing solely on the line projected into her vision. She twisted and turned, feeling herself brushing or bumping against obstacles but safely avoiding another hard collision.

"You're doing well," Iris praised, her voice a soothing balm amidst the chaos. "Just a little further."

Naya didn't respond, too focused on the task at hand. She could feel the end of the slide approaching, the incline leveling out beneath her. The line was her guiding light and she trusted it completely. Iris was really doing it! A sudden explosion of pain between her legs reminded her why Iris had lost her trust a very long time ago.

The breath left her lungs in a choked gasp as the white hot agony spread through her core. Her eyes flew open instinctively, burning from the contact with the thick liquid that blurred her vision. A tall rubber pole was sticking out of the slide and she had slammed crotch first into it.

*Iris, what the fuck!* Naya howled inside her mind, her thoughts a jumbled mess of pain and fury.

Iris's response was immediate, but far from comforting. "Apologies. I must have missed that obstacle in my initial scan." Naya couldn't believe it. Iris had been her guide, her lifeline in this chaos - and she'd led her straight into a crotch-shot from hell. The pain was overwhelming, but she couldn't take even another second to recover. She had to get moving.

Tilting her body to the side and spreading her legs to dislodge herself from the pole, she managed to glide past it.

Now sliding head first, she lifted her head up as best she could to prevent the sludge from flying into her burning eyes, but it did little to help. The world was a blurry mess of colors and she had no choice but to reply on the still glowing orange line. Her arms were held protectively in front of her head, ensuring that she could push off from any remaining obstacles she bumped into.

Thankfully, she was already very close to the end of the slide. Ahead, she could hear the sound of high pressure liquid slamming against the floor. The blurry image of spraying water confirmed that she would be blasted with water at the end of the slide.

A moment later, she tumbled head first off the slide and onto the flat ground of the warehouse. High pressure water slammed into her from all directions, finally cleaning the viscous liquid off her covered body. Unfortunately, all directions meant she also received a high powered blast of water straight to her still throbbing vulva.

"Ugh, FUCK!" Naya groaned, doubling over in pain as the high-pressure water slammed into her already aching pussy. She felt like she'd just been kicked in the lady bits by a mule. "Fucking Iris!"

Her curses mingled with those of the other competitors who slammed against obstacles on their descent down the slide behind her. Part of her wanted to look back to see how the others were doing, but she didn't have time for that.

She stumbled away from the slide and out of the water, her legs shaking and her breath coming in short, sharp gasps. In front of her was a long, open space separating the slide from the next obstacle, which consisted of the swinging platforms Mr. Xavier had first shown her.

There were only a few people ahead of her that she could see, most of them limping along similarly to Naya. The throbbing pain between her thighs made the simple act of walking painful, but pain was merely a familiar friend to Naya. She accelerated back into a full sprint.

A bald man painfully jogging in a tracksuit turned towards her with wide eyes as she rushed past him.

A woman crawling along the floor with her hand clutching her stomach toppled over with a whimper, realizing she had lost.

*I'm doing it!* Naya cheered with elation. She could really win! Her body trembled with excitement and adrenaline as she shot past four more runners. One of them was even sporting top of the line cybernetics, as evidenced by the diamond watch on his wrist. Naya guessed that his body wasn't designed for speed based on his rather slow pace.

"Fucking street rat bitch!" He yelled at her as she passed him.

Naya didn't spare him a glance, too focused on the finish line. She'd heard worse insults before. Being called a 'bitch' by a rich asshole who was slower than a slumrat was almost a compliment. Her legs pumped harder, her heart pounded faster. She was so close she could almost taste it. The runner in front of her seemed to disappear before her very eyes after he crossed a red line on the ground. Naya's eyes widened in shock, but she didn't hesitate to follow after her.

As soon as she crossed the line, she was greeted by a devastating sight. There was a massive hole in the warehouse floor filled with water, the gap filled with platforms swinging at various heights and speeds. The woman who had disappeared before was revealed once more several platforms ahead of Naya. Apparently there was some kind of field around this obstacle that prevented people outside of it from seeing the people inside.

Yet, none of that was the reason Naya's heart was sinking into her stomach. There, nearly half way through the obstacle, were five figures jumping from platform to platform with ease. All of them sported clothes and jewelry that Naya recognized, even from a distance, as costing more money than she had seen in her entire life.