Many of you followed during the confinement the adventures of Clémence, the heroine of L'Ancre noire , the first serial novel broadcast on 20 Minutes. We therefore decided to retry the adventure, still with Rocambole, the app for reading differently which appealed to many readers during confinement.
Mortal Derby X , our new soap opera, takes us behind the scenes of the Quad Derby, sport spectacle of the future between Roller derby and Rollerball. Its author, Michael Roch, is not an unknown. He has already published science fiction news and hosts the YouTube book brigade.
Summary of previous episodes: We have just started but if you want more, you can (re) read Tina Bartoli's Black Anchor.
EPISODE 1 - Jammers and blockers
- We are very happy, Garret and myself, your official commentator, very happy, to meet you after this page of sponsors, for the continuation of this fabulous and magnificent Quad Derby ™, big and exciting quad-annual party if there is one!
- Quadrennial, sir.
- Yes, absolutely, quadrennial is the right word, qua-dri-en-nale and exciting, if there is one. Quad Derby ™ is live, thank you, Garret. The quad roller skaters, those good old roller shoes invented more than three centuries ago ...
- Four centuries, sir. It was before the Great Collapse.
- That's what I said, before the terrible, the ef-froy-a-ble Big Collapse. Thank you Garrett, Quad Derby ™, it's live. The runners have now all set off on the downhill run of the Cocoon. The race started almost fifteen minutes ago, it will end in just under an hour, and the four teams are already holding their positions. Two of the four jammers are on the verge of reaching the first pack of blockers. This is the exceptional, ex-ce-ption-nelle, Molly Pop of the Rocket Warriors, on the heels of his biggest and legendary, le-gen-daire, opponent: Ubie Stevna of the Glorious Bastards. The other two are still lagging behind in the first Tube. Garrett, a little reminder of the rules?
- Yes sir. Here, Garrett, your second commentator. On the Track which extends from Haut-Cocon to Bas-Cocon, our four Quad Derby ™ teams will have to score the most points before the finish line. It is the jammers, one per team, recognizable by their helmet struck with a star, who score the points. The blockers are there to prevent them from advancing.
- How many blockers per team?
- Four, sir. Sixteen in total, who take up positions in a pack of four, one from each team, all along the slope. When a jammer passes a pack, she scores three points. When it passes a Tube, it scores a point.
- Tell us about the Tubes, are there any new and daring ones, beyond, this year?
- Indeed, on the Track are linked the open Gutters and the Tubes, closed. The organizers have innovated again this year: the second Tube is made of translucent glass, we will finally be able to find out what is going on there and what strategies the different teams are adopting inside…
- I cut you, the last two jammers are releases of the first Tube, Cherry Blood of the Black Bunnies at the head, followed very closely by Screw Barrymore Junior of the Betty Dolls.
- These athletes have a sense of spectacle! New obstacles are also present on the route: in addition to bridges and pillars, gutters-hills and, above all, the famous braid at the end of the route.
- Hills ?
- The slope is, after the fifth Tube, strewn with vertical differences. They will slow down our competitors who risk being ejected from the Track if they take them at too high speed.
- Vacuum and elimination at the exit!
- Fortunately, the nets are there to fish them out. Everything is played out safely on the Quad Derby ™. Fifty points at the finishing line…
- Exceptional Molly Pop! I'm cutting you, Garrett, but what a star! She has just passed the first pack of blockers with the avoidance maneuver that made her reputation: her small chased step returned. She sowed the stampede in the pack and took the lead in front of Ubie Stevna who takes advantage of the chaos to pass in turn.
- This first pack is exclusively composed of pivots which will take the role of their jammer if it is ejected. Usually, for strategic reasons, the pivots, with their striped helmets, are placed in other packs, but as the Track is still unknown for this first race of the year, the teams preferred to play it safe. Once all the jammers have passed the pivots, they will start following them to finish the race.
- Look at this Molly Pop. Folded in half on his long legs, what graceful and perfect, perfect, balance.
- I would dare to say, sir, that she is not likely to leave in a pacifier.
- Thanks Garret, Quad Derby ™, it's live. We are currently following our fabulous, fa-bu-leuses, jammers on the Cocoon Track. They approach at high speed the second Tube. They are shoulder to shoulder and send each other hit on hit in the ribs to hope to become leader. More than twenty meters and they will rush into this totally translucent Tube… Oh my God, it's horrible! What just happened? She pushed her? Stevna pushed her? I have not seen ! Garrett, is there a replay? My God, all this blood! Garr…
(Due to a technical problem, the QuadDerbyTV channel apologizes for this temporary interruption of its programs. We will be back on the air very soon.)
To be continued…
Discover the next episode on our site at 5 p.m. or on the Rocambole app for iOS or Android.
- Books
- Literature
- Science fiction