“Now where were we?” Lori asked as she strolled back to her seat. “Oh yes, there are always criminals for you to catch, Jazz. Have a look at this list.”
Jazz took the paper sheet from Lori, looked over it quickly, then threw it aside. “These are not even in my league. Of all the convicts I’ve caught, that Racer guy was the toughest, yet I-”
“I know, you pwned him.” Lori replied while rearranging the paper pieces on her table. “Something I couldn’t, or wouldn’t have done.”
“And yet you, not me, are the captain of this team?” Jazz’s lower lip began to pout out as he showed an expression of dissatisfaction.
“Don’t ask me, I didn’t make myself captain.” Lori shrugged. “These guys may not be strong enough for you, however their crimes added together could equal to the ones done by high-rate criminals.”
“Then let me ask you, between breaking a bundle of chopsticks and breaking each one individually, which way is more difficult?”
“Of course it’s the former, but...” Lori looked up, her brother’s question got her baffled, “no one would try it. They’ll probably pick the easier way.”
“Where’s the FUN in it, then?” Jazz grinned.
“Ok, I give up.” Lori raised her two hands and sighed. “Do whatever you want.”

Jazz won the argument. However his sister seemed a bit vexed, so he tried to comfort her by saying: “Don’t worry Lori. We’re not the only team around here. I’m sure the rest of C.O.R.E are more than enough to-” His eyes stopped at a piece of paper which stood out clearly among other papers on the table. “Hey, what’s that?”
“What’s what?” Lori looked up again, surprised.
Jazz didn’t answer his sister, he marched upon the table and pulled the sheet out.
“The Federal Fighter/Shooter Championship Tournament?”
“I don’t remember seeing that on my table before.” Lori gazed at the paper’s back, trying to read the reversed content.
“Fighters and Shooters from the whole planetary system will gather here, the best of the best. Be the champion and claim a prize of 100000 white gems!” Jazz read out the paper, then nodded his head, “Cool. This seems to be a good place to test my mettle.”
“We won’t be allowed to go there.” Lori said, once again bothered. “We’re C.O.R.E agents. We’re supposed to remain at HQ and be ready for any task that comes up.”
“You know what? That’s exactly what bored me out of my mind.” Jazz pointed at his sister repeatedly. “But this time, I’m not gonna be stopped!”
“Even by father?”
“Don’t speak of him in front of me!” Jazz suddenly become frightened, his previous macho state had completely disappeared, “It gives me the chills.”
“Well, you won’t be seeing him if you don’t do anything wrong.” Lori smiled.

Just at that moment, a rabbit came into the room with a delightful face. He exclaimed with a happy voice, “Good news! Due to the rapidly decreasing crime rate this month, all of us have been awarded with three holidays, starting now!”
“HELL YEAAAAH!!!” Jazz cheered at the news. Spaz barely understood what’s happening, but judging from how his brother expressed himself he could guess that it’s something good, so he popped out of his chair and started jumping around yeah-ing like crazy. Normally Lori would be glad with the news too, however this time she couldn’t bring herself to even smile at it. When the rabbit was gone to inform other teams, Jazz came to Lori and laughed enjoyably.
“See? It must be fate! God wanted me to participate in this!” Then he looked up with his hands clasped on his chest, “Thank you God, if you’re there!”
Jazz was so happy that he seemed to have lost it, because he joined Spaz and started to jump around the room screaming like a lunatic. At the same time Lori was getting more and more irritated. She picked up the advertisement that Jazz dropped, read it, then suddenly she said:
“Ok, so God wanted you to participate in this tournament. Let’s hope he also did something so you can sign up for it.”
“What do you mean?” Jazz was immediately brought back to reality, a sign of palpitation crossed his face.
“The deadline for the FCT signup is 10.00 PM today.”
“In other words...”
“You’ve got less than half an hour to get there and sign up.” Lori said as Jazz’s lower jaw began to drop down. “Duh.”
Jazz appeared to have been frozen for a second or two before he shouted, “Then we must hurry!”
“It’s no use.” Lori shrugged. “The space station where the FCT is held is between Medivo and Technoir. It will take at least twenty minutes to get there by spaceship, not to include going to the space port from here.”
“I have no intention of going to the local space port.” Jazz grinned slyly. “After all why travel such a far distance when you’ve got just the thing right here, right now?”
“Please tell me you’re not going to do it.” Lori shook her head. Jazz in return gave her a look that somehow made her back sweat.

There was nobody in the corridor outside team Jackrabbit’s office. Suddenly the door was opened in a sabotaging manner, then Jazz rushed out with his hand gripping his sister Lori’s wrist. He was pulling her while running at such a speed that her feet didn’t touch the ground. Lori herself was resisting unyieldingly “Let me go!”, but it was of no avail , Jazz pulled her along anyways. And Spaz was right after their tails. Yet no one noticed a pair of eyes behind the corner, which set sight upon them the very moment they stepped out of the room...

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That should explain a good deal. Next chapter will be available next Sunday, since I'm currently full of inspiration! Whooooo!