LAP 10
Roger & Draq

Even on a busy rush hour morning, one F-Zero machine manages to weave its way through the traffic at a quick pace, making its way to Falcon House. It's delivering a cargo of rare and delicious mangoes from planet Doreya, said to be the greatest fruit in the galaxy. Burt had them ordered in just for Alias, and the deliveryman...

... is Roger Buster, one half of the greatest delivery duo in the business; this was a small delivery, so his partner stayed behind to check on deliveries. Everyone at the café praises Roger for his hard work - a one-day delivery from another planet is no small feat! Everyone samples out the delicious mangoes, and Alias gets Roger's autograph, who can't wait to challenge Ryu at the Fake Star Grand Prix.

Unbeknownst to the happy customers, Roger's partner Draq is having some issues back at the station. Miss Killer has paid a visit and coerced him into a mysterious arrangement; he clearly wants no part of it, but the woman's violent ways leave him no choice.

Meanwhile, Alias's mother tells his friends he's having an operation soon, and it wouldn't be possible if it weren't for Ryu rescuing the medicine; however, Alias is afraid to go, worrying if it'll do him any good. Ryu and Roger try to make it easier for him, saying if either of them win the grand prix, he should have his operation... and Roger'll send him a crate of Doreya mangoes if he wins!

The Fake Star Grand Prix is about to begin, and Ryu and Roger are confident about their victory; Alias's wellbeing is riding on it. Draq in his Mighty Typhoon is also among the racers, but so is another surprise appearance: Captain Falcon!

The race begins, and Roger's Mighty Hurricane and Ryu's Dragon Bird are fighting for first place. Alias feels ever more assured knowing the two are racing for him.

Entering the tunnel, Roger rides up the walls to hit all the speed boosters, giving himself an incredible lead. Ryu follows suit, the two of them giving this race their utmost focus.

Encountering a hard turn, the Mighty Hurricane passes through it without a bit of a scrape, and is still far, far ahead of the competition. What he doesn't notice, however, is a flashing beacon planted on his ship by an unknown sniper miles from the race track.

The sniper proceeds to fire these beacons onto the rest of the racers, working backwards from first place. No one notices except Draq - who appears to have been expecting this - and Captain Falcon, who notices the glare from the faraway mountain.

He proceeds to drive his Blue Falcon off the side of the track... and begin riding along its underside. The sniper notices he's short one racer, but as far as he's concerned, his job is done.

The F-Zero committee receive a recorded message from Zoda (trying to disguise himself for some godforsaken reason): he has planted a bomb on every vehicle in this race. If the vehicle's speed falls below V-1 or above V-2, the bomb will detonate, unless they pay him a ransom of 10 million space credits. The committee are in shock; there's little they can do to remove these bombs, and there's a risk of the racers running out of fuel. For now, all they can do is call the police and warn the participants of the speed limit.

The racers all slow to their safest limit, and John Tanaka is most upset about this back at police headquarters: everyone in the Platoon bar himself, Dr. Stewart and Clash are taking part and under risk of detonating! The doctor has no time to worry - he theorises there must be a transmitter near the track, and their objective should be to find it and disable it.

Clash busies himself with pinpointing the bombs on all the machines, but there's still a risk that this is all a hoax. He quickly scratches that when some poor schmoe's machine skids out, detonating the moment its speed drops. Well, they know the threat is real, and it's a sure bet Zoda is behind this, but there's no way to leave the track...

... but Ryu still has a race to win! He pushes his speed to the cusp, but the Mighty Hurricane accelerates to keep ahead of him. Draq calls out to his partner to slow down, leave the victory to him instead. Miss Killer has threatened him for the prize money, and in exchange, she wouldn't kill Roger. Draq is doing this for his friend...

... and he hits a speed booster, gaining the lead. Roger is exasperated - he's winning this for Alias! What does Draq think he's doing?! He accelerates to first place, not wanting Alias to die over his loss, but Draq retakes it, not wanting Roger to die. Ryu gets in the promise party as well, and pushes his speed to the limit to try and match theirs. It's neck and neck between the three of them, risking their lives for the victory... but at least Alias is watching a hell of a race.

Meanwhile on the underside of the track, the Blue Falcon is still speeding away unhindered by the bombs. Flipping through the cameras recording the race, he sees one of a nearby blimp that looks worth investigating. Roger and Draq argue over who should slow down - they both have their own promises to keep, even if it kills them, and neither of them are going to back down. Not even Ryu!

Captain Falcon reaches the end of the track before boosting, hurling his Blue Falcon through the air and straight towards the blimp, crashing into the command deck: it's filled with Zoda's robot henchman!

Just as that happens, Draq can handle it no longer; he's going to push his speed into the red. Roger and Ryu follow suit, rising above the supposed danger levels. While the Platoon cry out in fear, Clash barely able to watch, the three race to the bitter end...

... and Ryu makes first place, followed by Roger Buster in second. The crowd goes wild! Alias couldn't have asked for a better result; both of his heroes got first and second place! The blimp situation has been remedied, Captain Falcon having trashed those robots and their transmitter consoles. The sniper packs up and leaves.

Roger scolds his partner for not telling the truth, though Draq clearly had his reasons; they can't stay mad at each other. Ryu is praised for his victory by the Platoon, but Jody still reprimands him for disobeying orders; not to mention they never actually learnt the real story behind the threat. Clash is still puzzled, though: those were real explosive chips planted on the racers. Why didn't they explode?

Taking a Doreyo mango for himself, Ryu watches Roger Buster and Draq's delivery vessel approach a warp gate. They're escorting Alias and his mother to the hospital for his operation, and Ryu wishes them the best of luck.

Burt's Classroom: Burt fills us in on Roger and Draq: their F-Zero machines were actually deliveries with no return or send-to address, and they hope racing them will alert the owners into retrieving them. They are most capable deliveryman, taking any job no matter how dangerous, and travelling the universe to get there.

4Kids broadcast: Another episode nobody's recorded and uploaded! This episode was aired 9th and renamed The Promise, and the only other change I know if is the sniper rifle was painted a cucumber green.

It's a little hard to feel concerned when two previous episodes have shown that pilots can parachute out of their machines should they explode, but we'll pretend we never saw that.

The pilot that explodes, like so many disposable racers, is driving a green recolour of Michael Chain's Wild Boar.