Coco Bandicoot: The Wumpa Games
By Mutitoon90
Chapter Ten
The morning came to the Wumpa Islands, and everyone that lived on each island was on Gun Island, cheering for their favorite teams that remained in the Wumpa Games, which were the Good Guys, the Half-Pints, and the Gun Men.
Each member of each team was given a racing cart for the next event, the Grand Race. Luna was working on her cart, when Coco went to her and asked a question.
"Luna, is your cart ready?"
"After this check-up, it will be." The wolf girl announced as she rolled herself from the underside of the vehicle, revealing her wolf ears.
"Luna!" Coco gasped upon seeing the ears, which twiched a bit, "Your ears!"
"What's wrong with my ears?" Luna demanded to know, seemingly forgetting about her non-human ears until she reached at her ears and touched them. Upon feeling her changed ears, Luna just started laughing.
The little bandicoot cocked an eyebrow as she inqurried the wolf girl.
"What's so funny?"
"Man, I can be so dumb at times!" The werewolf laughed at herself, "I've forgotten that Sash returned my powers last night."
"When?"
Putting an index finger on her chin, Luna answered thoughtfully.
"When I was... talking to Nathan and Sash."
"Yeah." Coco rolled her eyes, "'Talking' about me."
The announcement caused Luna to freeze in place for a few moments. Then, Coco smiled and spoke again.
"Don't worry about that, Luna. I heard you, but don't be hard on yourself. What happened yesterday was NOT your fault, and I don't blame you for it. Got it?"
"Okay," Luna spoke with a smile on her face, "I got it. Thanks, Co!"
A giggle escaped from the bandicoot's mouth as Sash, who is still in her human form, began the announcement.
"Alright, fans! The Grand Race about to start in a few minutes! Racers, get to starting line!"
This was heard by the teams, whom entered their carts and drove them to the starting line. Once there, the teams saw Megumi holding a green flag. Next to her was Liz with a yellow flag that said, 'Lap 1,' the blonde bandicoot from the Trophy Girls holding a similar flag that said, 'Lap 2,' and the green haired member of the Trophy Girls holding a black and white checkered flag.
"The final event is here, everyone!" The silver haired werewolf announced via microphone, "I know that you wanna know who's going home with the gold medal of the very first Wumpa Games! Will it be the Good Guys, who has been on the top of the rankings, the Gun Men, who's been following bandicoot and human dust, or the Half-Pints, the present underdogs that climbed their way to the top three! Oh, this is an exciting day!"
"All right," Aku-Aku's voice called to the racers, "the rules are this: the first team to complete three laps in the shortest time is the winner. Remember: both teams must cross the finish line because the timer is still on for each team until both racers of the same team makes their way across the finish line."
"Alright, teams!" Sash returned to announcing, "Start your engines!"
Coco revved up her cart's engine, which joined the chorus of the other engines. Then, she saw Megumi stepped forward with the flag in her hands and dropped the flag.
The carts sped off, almost like a flash, and poor Megumi nearly was ran over by the karts, but Liz and the Trophy Girls pulled her out of the way.
"Man!" Sash shouted as she saw Megumi's evading the karts, "Somebody get that girl a vacation!"
"You can say that again!" Liz barked at Sash as she pulled her blue haired partner onto her own back.
In the race, Coco and Luna took turns being the leading member of the team, with the Good Guys in the front and the Gun Men in the back. Then, the little bandicoot saw a rock formation that looked like a ramp, which she took the memory into her mind at that moment.
"Boy, this is one race to remember, folks!" Sash announced, possibly forgetting the fans, which were the residents of the three islands, were not well-developed about the ways of the outside world.
Mairo rolled his eyes as he turned to the next part of the lap, followed by Pinstripe and following the other teams.
"Man, Sash has got to learn about tact." Luna shook her head mentally as Coco passed her again, keeping a good distance from the brown wolf girl.
"Wow!" Coco gasped as she crossed the line, ending her first lap, "We're doing great! If we keep this up, we'll be in the winner's circle in no time!"
Luna was thinking the same thing, even though she could not hear her younger partner, who allowed her to pull into the front.
Crash and Nathan were using the same technique as the Half-Pints, but they planned on staying in the lead. However, Pinstripe has different plans.
As the carts passed a flag-flying Liz, the Potoroo Brothers creeped up to the Half-Pints, whom were in the middle of another shift of position. Then, both brothers drove in front of them and was about to made their way through the Good Guys.
"Damn!" Luna howled out a curse, while Coco, in her cart, yelled out, "I'm not gonna let that happen again!"
Then, the Half-Pints sped off over the Gun Men's carts as the three teams passed the ramp-like rock again. However, the Gun Men had passed Nathan and was chasing after Crash by the time the three teams passsed the blonde member of the Trophy Girls.
"Oh, no!" Coco gasped upon realizing that if she was going to win, she and Luna needed a plan.
Then, she recalled something in her memroy: the rock ramp!
Carefully, Coco drove to the side, which the ramp was on, saying to herself, "I hope this works..."
Luna, taking notice of this course of action by her partner, followed the young bandicoot, thinking the very same thought as her teammate.
Coco looked at her rear-view mirror and saw her friend following her to the ramp-like stone, telling the small bandicoot that she, Luna, was trusting her to led the team.
"Are you that trusting in me, or are you making up for the loss at the Surf n' Turf?"
"Coco..." Luna said, using her werewolf eyes to see Coco's face.
As if Luna's concern was sensed by Coco, the young she-bandicoot narrowed her eyes and said, "What Luna does is her own choose; I've got to this!"
Putting her engine into full throttle, the bandicoot sped up onto the rock and flew off of it with Luna mere feet behind her.
Pinstripe was bragging about his victory to himself as Coco and Luna landed in front of him and Mario. The leader of Gun Island was not happy about being upstaged by a couple of girls.
However, Mario was impressed about the trick that the Half-Pints pulled, even saying under his breath, "That's a good one, girls." Then, he added, "However, I'm not gonna let you two to beat the Gun Men."
Then, the brothers revved up their carts and tried to catch up with the females, however Pinstripe was losing his patience, and Mario had a bad feeling about his elder brother.
Luna looked at the rear-view mirrors and asked, knowing that the head potoroo cannot hear her, "What's going on now?"
The answer came sooner than the werewolf thought.
Pinstripe's cart sped to Coco's cart, and he tried to ram her in the bumper, which shocked Mairo with surprise.
Luck was on Coco's side, and she managed to evade being hit by Pinstripe. Luna also had good luck smiling at her, because Pinstripe missed her as he tried to hit her as well. However, Pinstripe was not so lucky, bacause he crashed into a wumpa tree!
"Pinstripe!" Mario shouted as he slammed his foot onto the brake.
"Mario!" Coco heard the younger porotoo's cry, causing her to hit her brakes as well.
"What the-!" Luna asked loudly as her karts screeched to a halt.
Mario hopped out of his cart and went to Pinstripe's cart, and Coco and Luna reached the Potoroos.