"RACERS, START YOUR ENGINES."

With a familiar lurch, Irene swayed atop her command perch as the acceleration and brakes engaged at once. She locked her jaw. She knew better than to be thinking about anything other than the course in front of them... but she just couldn't stop replaying those words in her head.

"You're a ing , Irene Bae! You know that, right?"

Behind the starting line. Seconds to take off. Her gaze hardened.

"Wow, then I guess it really says something that I'd rather a cactus than you, Jennifer."

One seed in front of them, rose gold lettering twinkled out the corner of her eye. The Black Pink. Sitting pretty in first behind the starting line. Irene's knuckled turned white on the dashboard.

"Not like you'd ever have the chance, Nose-rene!"

The air outside their windshield blurred with the heat exhaust of The Black Pink's engine.

"RACERS, TAKE YOUR MARK."

"God, that's the most pathetic insult name I've ever heard!" Actually, everything about Jennie Kim was pathetic.

Irene bit her lip. Wendy's hand rested in wait on the throttle. Eight starships. Three hundred kilometers of rainbow road. Two teams tied for the season points lead. One Limario Kart cup. Zero room for failure.

An earsplitting air horn rattled the track. Wendy's hand slammed on the dashboard.

They rocketed forward and the world was left in their dust.

Let the race begin.