[color=green][b][u]Chapter 10[/u][/b][/color] ---------- After a break, the racers and public returned to the arena for the third and final set of races, the King League. The scores up to this point were as follows: -------- [color=blue][b]PAW Patrol:[/b][/color] 130 [color=purple][b]Harold Humdinger:[/b][/color] 55 [color=aqua][b]Codi Gizmody:[/b][/color] 40 ---------- Mathematically speaking, this meant that the worst thing that could happen to the Mighty Pups, in the event they didn’t score a single point in the King League, was that Harold Humdinger could tie them at 130 points in the end. The best Codi would do was 115, and as a result, she could not win no matter what she did. It made her really hold a grudge on the pups, and she began to regret (from her perspective) not just relocating the city with her Relocator. “If only I had Elly-Dee and my other stuff,” she grumbled to herself. “Oh, well; whatever. I’ll just plot my revenge later. If I can’t have Adventure Bay, no one can!” --------- Ryder, meanwhile, mentioned to the two hosts how the pups what their superpowers were, and what new ones they gained when charging up, versus how the second meteor affected them when they became anthro pups, and the new powers they got on top of that. “Some things don’t change, such as how they can use their super paws to power up our Mighty Jet,” the tech-savvy 10-year-old boy concluded. “In that case,” Nathan replied, “touch the cars with your super paws, and let’s see if that works.” The pups did so, and the hovercars charged up in order to be able to race in the King League. “Now you’re all set to go show them who’s boss!” “Mighty Pup Power!” the pups cheered, letting out howls all the way. To keep everything fair and square, Harold and Codi upgraded their cars, with the latter using one of the robots that she was allowed to bring into the arena, while the former used the superpowers he got for himself (because he found a meteor piece) and attached it to his backpack. --------- The King League began with Mute City III, but because it was a lot harder than the Knight League, the difficulty level was set to master (from the controls controlling the virtual AI), meaning the AI opponents were going to be more brutal to everybody. The glitch was also fixed, so that the AI representation of Captain Falcon wasn’t specifically concentrating on Codi. However, it was pure coincidence that he was the one she was bumping into the most, given that she was so wrapped up in her greed and her anger, she ultimately wasn’t paying attention. As a result, she did not score any points at all from the first race. She moaned and groaned to herself from it, but she didn’t bother to complain. She understood, however, that she couldn’t win the competition no matter what, but it seemed to have an affect on her and her performance. Harold, on the other hand, managed to stay in second place, but in the end, he was no match for Chase. The Mighty Pups had their first 15 points of the King League, while Harold had 10, and Codi had zero. For Harold, that also meant that it was now impossible for him to win the championship. Helga wasn’t bothered by it, though, for as she said herself, “The point of me coming here was to keep him in line, win or lose. And he lost.” Winning the race completed a triple threat for the Mighty Pups thus far, as Chase won all three of his races. “And thanks to that,” Nathan announced, “you’ve earned yourself and your team a special bonus prize. We’ll find out what it is at the end of the competition.” “Thanks, Nathan, and thanks to the Mighty Pups for being such a great team!” Chase smiled. “We’re just like Apollo the Super-Pup!” Rubble echoed. “We save the day in our own special way!” He did his best to imitate the Apollo pose, but since he was an anthro, he had to modify it a little bit. “Are you a big fan?” Bradley asked. “The biggest!” Rubble exclaimed. “I love it! The same people and production company that do that show also do our show.” ------- “How are you able to give away such extravagant cash and prizes?” Vector asked Nathan out of curiosity. “I’m that rich,” Nathan replied. “I didn’t inherit the money, though; I worked for every dollar I earned. I began just working fast food, believe or not. All the while, I was writing stories based on ideas for what eventually became my Super Lion persona. Someone who was visiting me for a job interview saw it, said I should go into comic books, and after a bit of discussion, I said yes. Eventually he illustrated the comics for me. From there, everything just took off. It became an overnight sensation, and it became a whole media franchise as a result.” “What was the job interview for?” “Writing for that comic book company.” “Ah.” Vector dared not to ask Nathan any more questions, although he commented, “I take it that wasn’t your intention? Or was it?” “Not really. My original fantasy related to show biz was the fact I wanted to be a game show host, but I eventually found that creative writing was my biggest talent, so I said yes to the offer. Mind you I continued to work fast food for a time, but I eventually quit that. I got tired of smelling like grease every day. I might have just worked as a programmer or something in the end; I don’t know. But I frequently say that I got sidetracked, and I wasn’t going into show biz. He thinks it would’ve happened one way or the other.” ------ Death Wind II was next, and that meant that Skye was the racer racing for the Mighty Pups. Unlike the first Death Wind, she handled this track much better, and she took her first victory in the end for the Mighty Pups, adding 15 points of their own to give them 30. Codi did manage to score 10 points of her own for second place, putting her ahead of Harold, because he didn’t score any points. Instead, he got his first taste of an explosion when the combination of the heavy winds and the other cards bumping into him. As was the case with Codi, he realized he was not dead, but instead, standing next to Bradley. “It’s a good thing I’m an expert at teleporting,” he thought to himself. -------- Upon seeing his nephew suffer the loss from the explosion on live TV, Mayor Humdinger said to himself (as if he was talking to Harold), “And that’s why I declared you will never be the mayor of anything, and that’s final!” -------- “We should also point out that for those of you pups who raced just the one race and won it,” Bradley put in, “or raced twice and won both times, there’s a bonus for you also. We’re consolidating it into one big bonus prize at the end, however.” “Works for us,” the pups agreed. -------- The big question remained, though, if Harold or Codi would try something to get revenge on their rivals later on, considering that they were bound to the contract, and at this point, guaranteed to win. If such was the case, then at least the public knew who to call. --------- [color=orange][b]TO BE CONTINUED[/b][/color]