The Iron Tryouts
You've got the skills to win his contest—but can you win his trust?
When your brother's garage is on the line, you enter a billionaire's high-stakes engineering competition. But the CEO running it is the man you once betrayed, and he's determined to see you fail. To save your brother's dream, you'll have to outbuild the best—and convince a ruthless tycoon that you're more than your past. A story of second chances, high-voltage tension, and the sparks that fly when old wounds meet new ambition.
The story begins
The roar of the fabrication hall swallowed you whole—a symphony of whining servos and pneumatic hisses that vibrated through the soles of your steel-toed boots. Your hands, slick with graphite grease, moved by memory across the carbon-fiber chassis of the Ares-9, your entry for the Cross Industries gauntlet.
“Torque specs are off by eight percent,” you muttered to Leo, who was hunched over the drive train, his brow furrowed in concentration.
“I know. I’m fixing it.” His voice was tight, but you caught the tremor beneath. The garage back home was mortgaged to the rafters. This wasn’t just a competition—it was a lifeline.
A shift in the air pressure, a sudden hush in the crowd. You looked up.
On the observation deck, a man in a charcoal suit stood alone, hands clasped behind his back. Julian Cross. His gaze found yours with the precision of a targeting laser, and he didn’t look away. A slow, cold smile spread across his face—a smile that said I know exactly what you did, and I haven’t forgotten.
The announcer’s voice crackled over the speakers. “Competitors! Thirty seconds until the elimination round begins. Do not fail.”
You forced your eyes back to the machine, but the weight of his stare remained, a phantom hand on your shoulder.
What happens next is up to you.
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