Chapter 10: Recruiting Help
Lani breathed a sigh of relief as Vert just barely made it through the portal in time.
"I believe that's called cutting it close." Gig stated flatly as he watched the wormhole shut with a brilliant flash of light.
"I don't think now is the time to be making puns," Lani replied somewhat icily. "I would assume that there are injured down there, and I need to go treat them."
The girl didn't wait for an answer to her question, instead choosing to rush out of the door and down the steps. Judging from the smell, and the worried faces of Talia and Verity as they clustered around Terra's trainwreck of a car, she had gotten hit by lightning. It was only then that she noticed that Terra had hauled Taro out of the Realm. He must have been injured as well - the front end of his Roadrunner was all crumpled.
She arrived down at the scene just in time to catch the tail end of an argument concerning whether or not the drivers should enter the Storm Realm once more to rescue him. Lani winced as she noticed Gig float forward, already guessing what he was about to say.
"The Storm Realm can't be reopened." Gig informed the assembled group. "The Wheel has never opened a Realm again after it has closed."
Predictably, Kurt and Vert were quite angry at that statement. Wylde was as well, although not to the point that the two male members of the Teku were. Karma appeared to be indifferent, the Metal Teku were still concerning themselves with Terra, and even if Taro had an opinion on the matter he wasn't exactly awake to voice it. Monkey, however, was the only one that appeared relieved over not having to race through the storm again.
"Great, because one Realm's enough for me." He said decisively. "I want out of this deal. We're not getting paid, we're risking our necks-"
"Typical Metal Maniac." Kurt scoffed as he limped over to the general group. "The Teku aren't afraid to try again."
"Ah, scrap the Teku! Metal Maniacs do whatever we want!" Monkey now acted scornful, not willing to let on that Kurt was right about him being afraid. "Right, Wylde?"
"Nobody scares Wylde away from a race," Markie replied. It was rare for both of the Wylde brothers to agree on something, and Monkey looked at him in disbelief, barely noticing that Lani had driven up in an ambulance and was currently loading Taro into it. Ordering Terra to come to the infirmary as soon as possible, the Hawaiian got into her car and drove off into the rather cavernous base.
"What?" The jumpy ginger practically cried in disbelief. "You want to go back in there? Why?"
"We're drivers," Terra muttered as she worked on separating her vehicle from Taro's so she could move it into the garage that her teammates had commandeered as their base of operations. "What's the point of being a racer when you run from a race because of a loss or a crash? If you're that scared of defeat, you might as well just not drive in the first place."
"But look at what those Drone dudes did to us!" Now the teen was fervently protesting the decision to stay, wanting to get out of danger as soon as possible."
"Look what they did to me." The unfamiliar voice cut through the air, halting the growing tension. Looking skywards, the group of racers caught sight of a greying man standing on the walkway. He was clad in a modified purple racing suit, and his eyes were hidden behind mirrored glasses. Curiously, his entire body was encased in some sort of metal support suit.
"We have work to do." He stated, before turning to walk away. It was clear he thought that the matter of the drivers staying was settled.
"So, that's the guy that brought our team together," Verity muttered after he had vanished through the doors to the control room. Terra nodded once before wincing. Her burns were really getting quite painful and would need treatment as soon as possible. Noticing this, her African American teammate quickly told her to not worry about moving Welded, and to head off to the infirmary as soon as possible; an order that Terra had no trouble following.
"So, what do you think?" Talia asked as the two began to maneuver the car into the garage, parking it next to TechTyte and Back Alley.
"I think we're going to need Aurora and Gale," Verity replied. "I'll call our crazy friend, do you mind asking Gale to come on out here?"
"Not at all," Talia replied. "Just let me rip the coordinates of this joint from my car, and I'll be all set."
Kurt sat in his room, the crutches that Lani had given him leaning up against the wall. He had twisted an ankle in the Storm Realm, and right now it hurt to put pressure on the injury. Hobbling around was awkward, but it was better than doing something to damage his limb any further.
Right now he was busy dialing Nolo. Kurt knew that Tezla would hate him for going behind his back - the man didn't want news of what was going on leaking out to the rest of the world - but right now the man could care less. They needed help, and Tezla would be too stubborn to realize it.
Nolo answered on the fourth ring and wasted no time in getting straight to the point.
"You better have a very good reason for running off two nights ago." He said in a frosty tone.
"Hello to you too, Nolo," Kurt replied with a sigh. "How are your injuries doing?"
"I've gotten several bruises and sprained an ankle and a wrist, but nothing was broken." Came the response. "You're avoiding my question. Why'd you leave?"
"I'm going to preface this by saying what I am about to tell you will sound totally illogical, improbable, or otherwise absolutely unrealistic; and I wish to inform you right now that I am neither drunk nor high," Kurt said before the whole story came out. Surprisingly, Nolo was quiet and let him talk, until his teammate finally finished speaking.
"Look, it's not that I don't want to believe you, but aliens, alternate dimensions, and killer robots exist in science fiction, not the real world." At least Nolo didn't sound to upset over the story.
"Funny, that's pretty much what your sister said," Kurt replied absently. He could almost see Nolo bolt upright at those words.
"Talia's there?" He sounded excited, a bit hopeful even.
"Yeah, she was one of the racers that got invited." He replied. "I think she found one of Tone's car plans, her vehicle looks almost exactly like Synkro. So, are you and Shirako coming, or not?"
"Tell me where you are, and we'll be there as soon as we finish fixing Synkro."
Tork frowned as he put down the phone. Monkey sounded scared out of his wits, though the man was a bit uncertain about the whole aliens and alternate dimension concept the mechanic was trying to explain to him. It just sounded unrealistic. Nonetheless, though, Tork believed him. As jumpy as Monkey was, nothing on this earth could scare him away from a race.
It was obvious that he was going to go to the Acceledrome, although he wasn't going to go there to take Monkey home. No one, man or machine, messed with his teammates and got away with it. No one. Monkey didn't say much, but from what it sounded like Taro had been injured pretty badly, and two vehicles had gotten completely wrecked. He'd have to get Pork Chop to load up Monkey's spare car along with Rivited and Jack Hammer onto Old Smokey before they headed out.
The African American was certain that the southerner would come once he heard what had happened. He was Monkey's best friend and didn't like seeing the teen scared out of his wits. All it would take was one phone call, and the last of Tork's teammates would be on his way back to the city, ready to go and make the Drones pay.
But then there was the other reason: his sister. Monkey had mentioned that she was at the Acceledrome, along with girls named Talia and Terra. Tork didn't know who Terra was, but he knew Talia. How could he not, he had pulled her out of a blizzard. The girl had practically become part of his family while she lived with them for a few years. It would be good to see both of them again.
His mind made up, the man began to dial Pork Chop's number. He had a race to get to, and the sooner he got there, the better.
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