Acceleracers Chapter 5: The Aftermath Part 2

I do not own Acceleracers or any characters, vehicles, or other intellectual property thereof. Any new characters, vehicles, etc. introduced over the course of this story of my property.

The Acceledrome crew began to get into the Sweeper to follow the Silencer. With Monkey at the wheel, the massive construct rolled forward as the comparatively miniscule silver and purple car dashed ahead of it. He led them through the slalom of turns leading to the old Acceledrome. As they raced towards the entrance to the destroyed base, Monkey hesitated. Luckily, Kurt noticed that the hologram was back up, so he pressed the sterring wheel in to accelrate the massive drone abomination.

The Sweeper landed on the old landing ramp they had landed in so long ago, and the Silencer had already parked in the antechamber. The Sweeper veered to the right as best it could to get enough room to stop. The Acceledrome suddenly came to life, illuminating it, albeit inconsistently.

The group departed from the massive alien creation, and began to look around the supposedly obliterated base. They saw several admittedly primitive looking machines working on the damaged walls, holographic projectors, lights, and so forth.

"Why rebuild here?" Kurt said.

"Simple. No one would ever expect us to return to the base they already know about." The Silencer replied.

"Who are you?" Dr. Tezla said as he walked out of the Sweeper.

"I am Cain." The Silencer told him.

Tezla looked down and to the side, trying to remember his possible former comrade.

"I suppose formal introductions are in place." Cain stated.

Cain snaps his fingers and another Silencer off a few meters away, directing the machines by the look of it, turns and removes his helmet. Throwing the helmet in the Anthracite next to him, he walks up to Cain.

Looking at the dark haired, gray eyed Silencer next to him, Cain began to speak.

"This is John." he said. Standing side-by-side, the two looked very similar, but John's eyes lacked the blue tone of the other, his hair was dark and lacked shimmer, and his face lacked the freckling of the other Silencer.

"Those two are Wayne and Ryan." Cain says, pointing first to a broad-bodied person over next to the temporary supports, working on some sort of device and then to a lanky individual, hanging upside-down held up by a support harness, working on a wall panel. These two weren't wearing Silencerz uniforms, but silver jumpsuits.

Cain looked down at the machines woring on the Wheel holographic projector and said, "When will the Wheel projector be ready?"

"Within three hours." A mechanized, but fluid voice answered.

"Excellent."

"Wait; aren't you forgetting something, Cain?" John stated.

"Of course;" Cain replied, "I think you all know our friend here."

As he said that, none other than Gig flew down next to him.

"Gig." Vert said estatically.

"Gig?" Tezla said questioningly.

"We took an X-88 frame, stripped it out, made new software from the ground up, recovered what data we could from Gig's systems, and made resonable assumptons about the rest. He's identical to the original, except for the whole betraying you to the Silencerz part." Cain explained.

"Can we at least go to the coference room before continuing this interrogation?" John said.

"Sure." Cain said. "The elevator isn't working yet. We'll have to walk. You'll be fine, right Tezla?"

"Yes." Tezla replied almost hostilely.

After walking up the temporary staircase up to he mostly rebuilt conference room (though swarming with more roughly humanoid robots performing repairs)and getting settled in, the group begin questioning John and Cain.

"Why do you think the realms will start opening again?" Kurt inquired.

"And why now?" Taro said, looking off to where the Wheel hologram would usually be.

"Our research indicates that, if someone refuses to accept the Acceleron's ultimate prize, like Vert did, they will remotely 'reset' the Wheel, destroying the Accelechargers in the process. And we have reasno to believe this will happen soon." Cain replied.

"Hey, are you going to race too?" Vert asked.

"Of course." John snapped.

"Wayne and Ryan to the conference room please." Cain said, his voice going through the working part of the intercomm through a microphone on his collar.

"As for vehicles, I took the liberty of recreating vehicles for all of you." Cain said. John set down sets of keys that he had picked up from the top of a monitor in the conference room.

Cain walks up to them, "Power Rage for Vert" he says, throwing a set of keys to him, "Battle Spec for Kurt, Chicane for Karma, Synkro for Nolo, Bassline for Shirako, Hollowback for Tork, Rivited for Taro, Spinebuster for Wylde, Rolling Thunder for Monkey, and Jackhammer for Porkchop, pre-beaten." he finishes, tossing a set of keys to each as he addresses them.

As the drivers get their keys, Wayne and Ryan make their way up the stairs and into the conference room. Their faces were now clearly visible. Wayne was muscular, but almost obese regardless. His features were muddled, looking like they could be sharp but not striking due to a large jaw bone and wide cheeks, causing the skin to not fit tightly over his skull. His hair was a light brunette, with hazel eyes so light they were almost amber. Ryan was quite tall, but not so much as to dominate the room, very thin (like a gymnist), and his features quite pronounced. He had brunette hair, brown eyes, a pale complexion, and skin that fit tightly over his face, making the sharp features of his skull visible.

"Where are our cars?" Ryan asked, leaning against a wall.

"The workers should be bringing them in shortly." Cain stated.

"Lastly, we will be assisted by this." Cain said, pressing a button on the projector built into the table.

A hologram of a small, floating symbol came up. "Behold, Avus. The most advanced Artificial Intelligence known to man." Cain flaunted.

"Probably." John added.

"Yeah, probably." Cain replied.

"He has an extenive archive of knowledge about the Accelerons, our tech, our enemies' tech, and so forth. He controls the machines working here, and he will control the extensive security system that is currently under construction." Cain said.

"I recommend you all go a few laps around the new practice circuit before you hit a realm." Cain added.

All the drivers began to file out, except the two Silencerz defectors and their comrades and Shirako. Ryan walked up to the inattentive Asian, pulled one of his headphones off his ear and siad, "Pay attention. Go and test drive the new Bassline with the others."

Shirako walked off slowly, prompting John to roll his eyes. Cain looked at Tezla and Lani and said, "Come with me to the control room."

When they arrived in the control room, the screens in the mostly rebuilt room came to life. Avus' symbol flashed on all of the before dimishing to the upper right hand corner of each.

"Run a security camera scan." Cain commanded.

"Running." A robotic voice belonging to Avus replied.

"Avus will be capable of aiding drivers in the realms as given tactical data to anyone needing it." Cain stated to Tezla and Lani.

"Well, anyone from the Acceledrome." John said (he didn't leave with the Teku and Maniacs).

"Of course. He can also sweep security, check data readouts, et cetera, et cetera." Cain further stated.

"Run check of the realm timer, Avus." Cain said.

As the timer sprang to life and began to tick down, Avus reported "Timer operational."

"I think we should get ready for the realms while we can." John said to Cain.

"You're right. Go get our racing cars and suits, they should be in the storage room." Cain said. Shifting his attention, he added "Ryan, take my car and lead our fifth team member in, please." over the intercomm.

"Fifth member?" Lani said, though Tezla was thinking the same.

"Yes. While we're on the topic of drivers, I was thinking we should send 8 or 9 drivers in to the realms, to maximize our chances of victory. With Avus, we could more easily manage drivers in the realms. It could help us win more Accelechargers."

"Very well." Tezla said, in cotemplation.

By the time this conversation had finished, Ryan had already sped off in Iridium out into the desert.

"Lani, did you expect me to not send every resource available here? Did you think a Silencer treason could succeed with only four turncoats? No, there is one more who will come here. Others will go into hiding, though. Or is there something else that troubles you. Afraid Avus will replace you, make you obsolete? No, he just a little too primitive for that." Cain rambled. "Avus, see if this Wheel hologram is working." Just after he said that, the Wheel hologram shot to life.

"Good." Cain said.

No, the fifth member is not from the World Race, no it isn't Major Wheeler, etc. I know I haven't addressed Sparky, I know Gig has been totally quiet, and I know Kadeem and Gelorum's statuses are still up in the air. Just wait, the next two chapters will have enough exposition to adrress most if not all of these.

This may be the last chapter for a little while, so just hang in there, I will finish it.