Alyx had laughed at the gesture, and put her helmet on afterwards. She’d forgotten it a number of times in the past, much like today, to the point that she had to put one in her hoverbike. Safety was no joke when people died in all manners of gruesome ways during these races. Had there ever been a race without a single casualty? If there had, she had missed it. In many cases, a helmet would do nothing to protect the individual wearing it. The head may remain intact when a body was cleaved in half, but what good did that do? The medical field had gotten far, but not quite that far.

The main advantage she had when she was in the back was that she could avoid getting destroyed early on when everyone grouped together in the middle to get ahead of the rest. It wasn’t necessarily a rookie mistake, but you had to be prepared and tough to survive that clash. Alyx could just roll past the losers, and go after those who thought they had gained an advantage by killing someone. My, my, what poor sportsmanship!

She activated her shield when the lights turned orange, and the engines began to buzz. It was subtle, a faint gray glow around her princess that could be difficult to detect. The rules were vague on whether it was allowed or not, and she’d never officially registered it as a part of her bike. If anyone tried to kick or punch her, they were in for a nasty surprise. It would be like putting their foot through a laser field. Of course, Alyx couldn’t attack anyone herself either as long as it was activated. Her bike was on the heavier side though, with plenty of power to ram and force others of the track.
  
When the lights turned green, Alyx focused everything on acceleration and speed. The princess reacted flawlessly, and flew forward as fast as she could after standing still a second ago. Alyx had to steer to avoid crashing herself, but she didn’t entirely evade the bikes of others. She rammed a few of them, forced her way towards the front through anyone that got in her way. There was a noticeable difference in the quality of their bikes compared with hers. She’d been racing for years, and gotten upgrades from all over the known universe. Sometimes free of charge from sponsors. Maybe it was an unfair advantage, but then again, if they couldn’t stand the pressure, they shouldn’t be racing.