It was sundown and the game was about to begin. 

Varnaulk was to be the games announcer and drones using referee software were going to be sending him data telling him what to say.

The teams took their places at the foot of the canyon. Below them was a monument to LyrAndal, it was a very large statue with two hands that had palms facing upwards. On the top of the palms were three small drones with little flags that were the colors red, blue and green. 

Each flag was made with a shiny space worthy reinforced fabric that could not be torn easily.

As the teams stood in their starting locations over the cliff of the canyon, Sam began to notice how deep it was. He was in awe at how intricate some of the patterns were in the carvings made by ancient Tigris over a thousand years ago. 

There were many temple entrances, pillars, statues and signs of previously built civilizations carved into the walls. Sam began to think the stone must have been very strong and cut with something even stronger as there were no signs of erosion in the ancient structures. His mouth dropped at its magnificence.

"Getting scared?" Kenneth shouted at him.

Suddenly there was a great loud roaring sound as the large and powerful hover bikes of Kenneth's team made their way automatically to the starting location and stopped in front of each player. 

Kenneth hopped on his hover bike and began to make engine revving sounds. 

This was a soundless design Sam knew, the sounds were being produced by a large speaker that Kenneth installed in each bike as a means to intimidate Sam and his team.

"Hey freak boy! Where's your ride?" Kenneth asked.

"Papi!" Sam smiled and turned to shout.

As Kenneth and his team revved their engines the Olliniqus appeared flying low and slow over the horizon. When they landed in front of each player on Sam's team, Kenneth laughed at them. 

Papilliowalayo came and fluttered over Sam making a slow landing, he seemed really happy to see Sam. He jumped up and down ruffling his fluffy fur as he made cooing and trill sounds.

"Dorky butterflies? PFTTTTTTTTT! HAHA!" Kenneth remarked and scoffed at their choice of vehicle for Extreme Droneflag.

"Players take your marks the drones will take off at the end of the countdown!" Varnaulk announced. The audience quieted, the sun was setting as some lights turned on along the canyon. A series of large screens were placed along the canyon to show the audience footage that would be captured by smaller drones recording the players and the event.

The screens began the countdown from ten to zero and with each number Kenneth's team revved their engines louder.

"Prophetigress! Do not worry we will save you from Sam's evil spell!" Nabine shouted at Candillice. 

Candillice gave a confused look and turned to look at Sam.

"Kenneth is prone to the usage of disparagement tactics, to obtain whatever he wants!" Rufus explained to Candillice.

"He's spreading lies about Sammy!" June yelled angrily.

Sam was not intimidated by this. He and Kenneth just stared each other down.

"The drones are away! Players hold!" Varnaulk announced. The players had to wait for their countdown as the drones were always given a thirty second head start.

Sam and Kenneth turned their heads to take note of the direction of each of the drones, the canyon was very long and wide, but there was a fork ahead that split into three directions.

"Quite the erratic flight paths if I do say!" Carlyle commented.

"Left then right, up and down and ah there we go it turned west!" Carlyle stated as he watched the direction of the green flag, he typed in the information on a wrist computer on his suit for sharing tactical knowledge with the rest of the team.

"I can't see where the other one went?!" June stated.

"The blue flag? It took a turn downward and headed east the other is heading straight north," Reegan whispered to June. He then typed the information into his computer. Sam and Kenneth both had their eyes on the red flag. It headed straight north down the canyon, they were both intending to race for it.

"Ten second countdown commence!" Varnaulk announced and the Virillian crowd cheered. 

The Tigris slaves were not as happy to be there but even they were wanting to see who would be victorious.

The countdown on the screens reached zero, Kenneth laughed and cranked his engine to full speed as he went after the drone that headed north. The other members of his team followed him in a tight formation pattern leaving Sam and his team behind in all the dust they kicked up. 

Kenneth only looked behind once to smile at how pathetic he thought they looked as the creatures they were mounted on began to lift slowly off the ground. 

The Olliniqus dived down the canyon to gain speed for flight and Sam's team was in the game.

"June you're with me let's go after the blue flag!" Reegan shouted.

"Rufus and I will capture the green flag!" Carlyle shouted.

"Sam I am with you but we have to catch up to them!" Candillice exclaimed.

Kenneth was getting close to the red flag, he looked behind him once more to amuse himself with how far behind Sam was. He saw that Sam's team had split up into groups of three so he made some hand signals to his team to break formation.

Nogu and Bertin left formation to chase down Rufus and Carlyle while Whiska and Malush veered off to chase down June and Reegan. Nabine was asked to break off and hold back behind Kenneth.

"Keep an eye out for freak boy he must be way behind!" Kenneth shouted to Nabine. 

But when Kenneth looked behind him he saw that she was spinning and struggling to hold on to her hover bike as though something had caught her up in its wake. When he turned his head to look to his right he saw that Sam was right next to him.

"He's fast!" Kenneth stated.

Kenneth pulled back a lever on his hover bike, it doubled his speed to the point where he was within reaching distance of the drone carrying the red flag. 

Kenneth lunged for the flag, he felt it within his fingers but Sam had flown right up to the drone and pushed it away with his hooklance. Kenneth laughed at how weak Sam's hooklance looked. He thought the robotic pincer grab arm at the end looked silly as well.

"Get away from it freak boy! You know! I have one of those too!" Kenneth shouted.

He reached next to him and pulled up his much larger hooklance. He made a quick swing at Sam but Papilliowalayo evaded with a rolling motion, he then maneuvered Sam on to the other side of the drone.

Sam reached with his hooklance again to try and grab the flag, he almost had it but Kenneth pushed the drone out of the way with his own hooklance.

The drone decided it was time to stop flying straight and with a quick darting motion from left to right and a quick drop in altitude it headed towards the hiding spot it had predetermined. Sam chased after the drone, Nabine went after him. She was moving in on him fast while Kenneth was still confused by the sudden turn of direction. 

Nabine almost had Sam by her hook when Kenneth stopped her.

"Lay off him Nabine, Remember I said to leave him to me!" He shouted in his radio.

"White Knight?" Nabine asked with confusion.

"Here's what we will do. . . The drone went and hid somewhere let's have Sam do the work for us in finding it!" Kenneth suggested.

"Ladies and Gentlemen the red flag is concealed. Will they find it in time? The clock is ticking!" Varnaulk announced as a countdown began to show on the screens.

"If they fail to find it within five minutes the drone will move to another location but remember one team must acquire each of the three flags to uncover the location of the final golden flag. . . And they only have thirty minutes to achieve this!" Varnaulk announced. Adimniss appeared behind Varnaulk, she took over the speaker phone.

"If the final drone fails to appear you die!" Adimniss threatened and then she turned to the audience.

"All of you die! All of you will perish!" She threatened.

"Hear that freak boy? You better start taking this more seriously!" Kenneth shouted and laughed at him while he watched Sam figuring out where the drone carrying the red flag was hiding.

Meanwhile in another location of the canyon, Carlyle and Rufus were chasing the drone carrying the green flag. Nogu and Bertin were gaining on Rufus and nearly knocked him off of his mount several times before Carlyle intervened and moved himself between them.

"Bad show! Did you forget about me? You need to go through me first fellas!" He stated as he reached for his hooklance and made some movements to show off as though he were holding a sword. 

Nogu and Bertin nodded to each other and proceeded to gang up on Carlyle. 

They took several swings of their large hooklances at him but he evaded.

Rufus caught the green flag, there was cheering in the audience. This distracted Carlyle for a brief second. He looked behind him but could no longer see Nogu or Bertin. They were in front of him making an attack run.

They each came swinging their giant hooks at Carlyle. Their speed was great and their engines were loud and threatening. Carlyle had little time to think as they both lunged their hooks at him. 

He leaned back. 

With quick hand movements he was able to turn slightly one of the hooks so the two hooks latched on to each other. 

When Nogu and Bertin realized their hooks were stuck together they both tried to pull their hook back in at the same time.

They gave each other a sorry look as they had both pulled each other off of their hover bikes. Nogu and Bertin fell and their parachutes opened. 

They were out of the game and had to enter Andrew's ship.

In another section of the canyon June was starting to have fun looking for the drone.

"I almost got it!" June exclaimed as she found the drone with the blue flag's hiding spot. She reached for the small drone, it was hiding inside of what looked like an ancient mailbox.

Reegan was behind her. He watched Whiska and Malush who were circling over but his attention momentarily turned else where. 

Reegan noticed that Nallany's ship was being towed down to the ground by several Virillian ships.

"Nally's captured!" He said with sadness and fear.

"June I think you should head back to my ship, I'm going to get us far away from here it's too dangerous!" Reegan shouted.

"No I want to play! I want to help!" June screamed. She jumped up and down waving the blue flag that was in her hands.

Whiska and Malush saw the flag and commenced to dive bomb on June's location.

She saw them and quickly placed the flag onto the back of the mount on her Olliniqu. 

June tried to get away but she was flying in the wrong direction.

"Sam's this way we gotta get the flag to him June!" Reegan shouted. But she was soon overwhelmed by Malush who dived into her path. June was able to avoid his hooklance but she lost sight of where Whiska went.

June felt a light tap on her shoulder and then a yank as she was lifted off her Olliniqu by Whiska who then placed her gently on the ground of the canyon.

"June has touched the bottom floor of the canyon and is deemed out!" Varnaulk announced.

"Get back to the ship June tell Toido and Tafficious we are bugging out!" Reegan shouted.

"Malush get the flag!" Whiska yelled on her radio but June's Oliniqu was being difficult and would not allow Malush to have it. Instead it flew over to Reegan.

Reegan grabbed the flag and left to find Sam as quickly as he could.

"That gots to be against the rules!" Malush stated with disappointment.

"Gaah. . . Anything goes White Knight said so!" Whiska replied.