CAT. JW-002 · 2026 · Hadal Static
Twenty Ninety-Seven
StreamingThe world: corporations settled their wars in the arena decades ago, and the championship is the biggest show alive. A garage kid rebuilding a scrapped war frame watches the broadcasts and wants in.
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01
Twenty Ninety-Seven
4:48
The wars went quiet in the fifties, so the story's told The corporations found a better use for blood and gold Now every grudge and every merger, every claim and call Gets settled in the arena where the great frames brawl Ten storeys of alloy with a human soul inside Broadcast to the system, every channel, every night And me in a lock-up garage with a wreck they threw away Rebuilding her by lamplight for the day I get to play
And the whole block shakes when the main event begins
Twenty ninety-seven, the future's got a beat Chrome gods dancing while the bass shakes the street Two enter the circle and the law is small The oldest law there is: one must fall I was born too late for the wars of old But right on time for the age of chrome and gold
I know every fighter's pattern, every pilot's tell Every arena's bassline, I could hum them all too well The championship's a ladder and the ladder ends in stars The winner takes a colony past the orbit line of Mars The losers, well, the broadcast never lingers on the cost There's always fresh contenders when a challenger gets lost But the beat drops every evening and it calls me like a tide And the wreck in my garage says get inside
And the whole block shakes when the main event begins
Twenty ninety-seven, the future's got a beat Chrome gods dancing while the bass shakes the street Two enter the circle and the law is small The oldest law there is: one must fall I was born too late for the wars of old But right on time for the age of chrome and gold
They say the league eats garage kids for breakfast Say the fine print's sharper than the fists But the frame I rebuilt has a heart that matches mine And nobody checks the guest list when you headline
Twenty ninety-seven, the future's got a beat Chrome gods dancing while the bass shakes the street Two enter the circle and the law is small The oldest law there is: one must fall I was born too late for the wars of old But right on time for the age of chrome and gold
Filed my entry at the district gate Signed the line. Couldn't wait.