Acceleracers: Restart
Part Two: Speed of Silence
Chapter Ten: The Test Track
A/N: ¡Por el amor de Dios!, which is an exclamation in spanish for, literally, ''for the love of God!'', and yeah, I am saying it because I have FINALLY decided to update this story, the one which started my ''career'' as writer here. Well, I am a man of few words, so well, enjoy the chapter peeps.
*TEKU DORMITORIES, ACCELEDROME, AROUND 8:00 AM*.
Brrrrroooooooom. A yellow blur zoomed, like a plane passing low enough to let it's engine rumble be heard. Brrrrrroooooooom. Another blur, a red one, passed behind it, struggling to catch up. The first one had a relative advantage that was consumed in an instant as the red blur catched up, rumbling deeper. The aforementioned yellow one was hit by the red one, and swerved to the right sidewalk, and impacted on a building. The momentum made it sail in the air in the opposite direction, and come to it's fatidic end on another building on the other side of the street, exploding in a ball of fire and smoke, the car and it's driver ceasing to exist. A not so distant cry was heard of a young teen. His hazel eyes widened in concern and utter disbelief. He had tan skin, a sharpy chin of sorts going down, and pitch black hair around his head in a tarzan-like style without curls.
''Tooooooooooone!'', was the only thing he could bring himself to express verbally. His voice was filled with panic, desperation, and impotence. He dropped to his knees, and his head fell down, he grabbed his face with both his hands and sobbed. He fell on his back and started to mumble nonsense gibberish to himself. The wail of a siren, an ambulance's one, along with multiple polices' were audible. Soon enough, footsteps sounded as well, and in front of the teenager that laid curled in the floor, his teammates appeared. His vision blurry and dim due to the effect of tears, he could only see multiple blurred spots, eight. He recognized five of them, being familiar with the colours. Karma, Kurt, Shirako, Vert, and the rookie. The new one on the Teku spoke the same language as Nolo's, true is that Nolo spoke English, but with a considerably accent that sounded like mexican. Octavio spoke spanish too, but with a jargon characteristical of his country of origin, one in South America, Argentina, and when he made use of his native expressions, not even Nolo or Tone understood him.
Two of the other three were blurry spots of white, and he blinked to clear his vision. The world hadn't been so clear since a long time ago, or that's what Nolo thought. The dying sun gave the city a nice look, the sunset's rays giving everything a lazy-like hue, one that inspired you to take a nap there, or enjoy doing free-time activities. There it was, one of the medics kneeling beside him and aiming a flashlight at his eyes.
''Can you hear me?'', her soft voice asked, her extremely unusual gray eyes widening as she studied him, fearing that the middle Pasaro sibling had undergone a shock due to the extreme amount of emotions and intensity of the events.
''I-, He-, Tone'', Nolo weakly spoke, he felt too sad and tired to even talk.
The medic rose from her kneeling position and turned to the seven people standing there, and adressed them with, ''He's okay, he hasn't had a shock due to the fear, which is good, he is slightly traumed by this, but I am no psychologist, my only advice is for you to assure him some rest''.
''Yo', thanks doc', will do'', Shirako Takamoto told the medic coolly, in a casual way. He helped Nolo to his feet and beckoned for Kurt to come closer. The Japanese Teku grabbed Nolo's left arm and passed it over his neck, and Kurt did the same with Nolo's right arm. They all walked to where their cars were, and glanced briefly at the scorching, smoking remains of Synkro, Tone's car.
His brother's car.
His brother was no longer there, and yet he, stubborn and obstinate person he was, refused to believe it when the proof smacked his face.
The other thing that had attracted his attention was the last figure standing there when he laid curled in the floor, a man with ghostly pale skin, holder of a big height, clad in a navy blue suit, with a purple tie, and below it, a white shirt. He had glowing light blue eyes, and pitch black hair, cut in a military style. He was sporting a briefcase in his right hand, and with his left, he had straightened his tie before looking at each Teku in particular, his gaze landing for several seconds in Octavio, and then nodding in approval before adressing Nolo and fading from existence slowly, vanishing with no trace behind.
XXXXX
Ring. Ring. Ring.
''GAH!'', his voice exclaimed, alarmed, and then his hazel eyes scanned the room. He turned the alarm off, groaning, and the beeping light blue numbers reading ''8:00 AM'' quieted down.
''Must've been a nightmare, mierda'', he added, cursing at the end. Nolo got up from his bed, and went to the bathroom. He looked to himself in the mirror while he washed his face, removing the dried tears and subsequently drying it with the white towel adjacent to the sink. He stepped out and came back to his bed. He briskly put in his dark blue Teku pants, which had two, thin orange stripes on each leg, and his orange and blue Teku jacket over his white tank top, and stepped out of his room, shutting the door behind him.
''Well, I guess the best I can do is go and try to have breakfast'', Nolo thought to himself and walked down the stairs that led to the Teku dorms, and went to the Cafeteria.
After some minutes of walking through the hallways, he found his destination, and he stepped in. Most of the people were still asleep, it was friday, and the lazyness was present. Adding the fact that it had been two weeks since the Cavern Realm, things had gotten really boring. Nolo's eyes glanced around the room, and he did not find much people there. Martin, the only latino Maniac and good friend of Octavio, was eating a salami sandwich, and sipping casually from his white mug of not-steaming coffee.
''Morning Tincho'', the Teku leader adressed the Maniac.
''Hey'', Martin replied with that sole word and a gesture of his head.
''Have you seen anyone?'', Nolo queried as he grabbed a tray and went to grab some food to eat. He picked up a taco and a glass of orange juice.
''Wull'', Martin started with his mouth full of bread and salami. ''Yeuh, Tulia, yur sisterrr, and Vert's causin, Arura, were here half an hour ago, they ate quickly and ran off to their garage, they were mumbling something that I couldn't quite comprehend fully, altough I catched something off ''girl's meeting'', and ''private matters to discuss'', but they were fast, and I did not pay much attention'', Martin answered as he finished eating his sandwich and drank away what remained from his coffee. ''Oh, by the way, if you are wondering, all the Maniacs are still asleep, save Monkey and Tork, who are doing some stuff, and Octavio as well, and my coffee was a cold one, yeah, kinda weird taste but-'', Martin added, but was cut off by Nolo.
''Tork?, Octavio?, what're they doing?'', the lead Teku pressed on, seating in front of Martin and biting a piece of his own meat taco.
''Tezla called both of them to test the Accelechargers on the Test Track half an hour ago, and they have been prepping their cars and some minutes ago they started driving'', Martin replied, while standing up. He walked to the trash can and threw his tray, and then washed the single white mug in which previously his coffee was housed and stored it in the cupboard, and walked away nodding a silent goodbye to Nolo.
The Teku leader nodded in response as well, and sat in silence, biting hurriedly his taco until it vanished, ceasing to exist, and then drank in only four gulps his glass of juice. He stood up and cleaned his glass in the sink and put it in the cupboard as well, and then sat down again, still and completely quiet as he studied the idly-spinning Wheel of Power outside, through the glass of the Cafeteria. He was startled when he heard tap-tap sounds behind him, but quickly calmed down with a sigh as he realized it was Lani. She was kind of hurried, Nolo could tell as she burst in through the Cafeteria's doors, and scanned the room as if looking for someone. She found him and quickly walked up to him.
''Hey Lani, what's up-''.
''Doctor Tezla wants you in the Test Track to test the Swamp Realm Accelecharger'', she spoke fastly, while practically dragging Nolo alongside her to the path that lead to the Teku garage. She occasionally glanced at him while they walked down the hallways. He caught her looking at him, and her green eyes widened and she blushed and quickly turned away. Nolo shook his head and both suddenly came to a halt when they reached the small catwalk that conducted to the Control Room.
''G'luck Nolo'', she wished him as she gave him a quick and surprise kiss in the right kiss, and walked inside the Control Room, the door closing behind her with the sci-fi swoosh sound, leaving a confused latino outside.
He felt weird, and light headed. He staggered backwards and held himself to the wall for support. ''Hombre, cada vez entiendo menos a las mujeres'', he muttered to himself as he pushed himself off the wall and walked down the set of stairs set beside the catwalk, making his way to his new car.
There it was, High Voltage. It was Nolo's own car, he wouldn't be driving Synkro. He built this blue and orange car by himself. It looked pretty much like a Volkswagen Golf GTI, but with a small spoiler behind, and besides this one had a turbo engine, and all the accomodations to race in other dimensions against crazy robots. It was navy blue, with two orange stripes that ran along the hood, and it also sported on the sides some decorations made of stripes and figures of orange colour, and in the same colour the word TEKU written below, near each rear mudguard. It also had, on light blue, the Teku team symbol in the hood, over the orange stripes. Nolo paced to his locker in which he had his racing helmet, a blue and orange one with alternating stripes of both, and an adjustable blue coloured visor. He grabbed it, and closed his locker, turning the key and then storing it in his pocket, and went back to his new ride and got in, and awaited for Tezla's call to go in the Test Track.
XXXXX
*ACCELEDROME'S TEST TRACK, MINUTES BEFORE NOLO WENT TO HIGH VOLTAGE*.
Darkness. That was what enveloped the maroon-coloured rock walls of the test track. And a rumble was heard, a deep, mechanic one, like from a heavy engine.
Brrrrrooooooom.
There it went.
''Who needs headlights?'', Tork confidently talked to no one in particular. He switched gears, and accelerated to 140 MPH and crossed over the gap in the Test Track. His car glew in a bright orange, illuminating the darkness around him. He was testing out the Cavern Realm Accelecharger, and from the inside of his car, the world outside had an orange-ish tone.
''I'm going to turn on the lights again'', Lani replied to Tork. The leader maniac wondered, while the lighting came on in the track, how did she hear him, because he was sure he was speaking only to himself. He neverminded it.
''I am taking out the Accelecharger'', he announced as he touched the red button under the Accelecharger reader and the chip-like object came out of it's spot, ceasing to shine in an orange colour, both the Accelecharger and the car itself.
Tork felt a softer engine hum, like the ones the Teku made, and Octavio passed him with a wave of his hand.
''He's the only one with brain in the Teku, that I know of, though'', the lead Maniac reflected as he slowed down and kept driving, testing his car for any abnormality or failure it might have so he could fix it later.
''I am gonna put this thing in the reader'', Octavio told Lani as he grabbed with his right hand the Mythic Realm Accelecharger and inserted it in the reader on his right. The Accelecharger in the spot glew white, and his car did as well, and he neared a gap. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity and switched gears to fourth, and sped up to 150 MPH as he neared a gap in the distance.
He was sure he'd sail over it, but instead, from the sides of his car two wings extended, white, scaly ones that moved like if they were alive, like dragon wings. They were strong and muscular enough to lift the car over the gap, flying literally over it, and then descended gracefully on the other end, the wings fading slowly until they had vanished into shards of oblivion.
''Cool'', Octavio commented in approval, nodding as he removed the Accelecharger and both his car and the chip stopped shining white.
He zooomed down the track to keep driving a bit more to see if his rebuilt car worked perfectly well.
XXXXX
*IN THE CONTROL ROOM OF THE ACCELEDROME*.
''Interesting'', Tezla observed. ''The Mythic Realm Accelecharger uses the ability of an specific mythic creature to help the car surpass any obstacle'', he resumed, nodding like Octavio had done, his face, covered by his purple glasses, lightened up by the white, ghostly glow of the computer screen.
After some silence, Tezla spoke again. ''We should send Nolo in now to test the Swamp Realm Accelecharger''.
Lani sighed audibly, before turning to face Tezla from her swivel chair. The squeeling of the chair caught the doctor's attention and he turned his head from the computer to look at Lani. The mechanic's eyes, green and bright, clashed against the Doctor's ocean blue's.
''You know how Nolo feels about Tork'', Lani protested, her face showing her concern. ''If you put them on the same track...'', she trailed off, realization settling in. ''You want trouble with them!''.
Tezla did not even flinch from her words. ''Competition leads to a better effort'', the old man countered coldly.
Lani, unable to bear anymore what Tezla was saying, stood up from her chair and faced him with fiery determination in her eyes. ''It's not competition with Nolo, it's!-'', she was shooting back but was abruptly interupted as the door to the Control Room wooshed open and Monkey stepped in a bit.
''What do you want?!'', Lani asked bluntly.
The Maniac mechanic did not even stir from the bluntness and replied with his usual happy, clumsy manner, ''Tork said he'd test this new juice I cooked up''. ''I call it Nitrox Three...'', Monkey made a pause and raised his right hand, closed, and then made a gesture like when someone announces something important, moving his right hand from the left to the right, and then his index finger pointed up and he moved his hand upwards in unison with the next words, ''And a half!''.
''You can go three hundred miles an hour reverse!'', he announced happily.
Lani and Tezla stood there, both not moving a muscle.
''Fine'', Lani broke the silence. She beckoned the mechanic to come over to where Tork's car's HUD was showing. ''There's the radio to speak with him, go ahead'', she said to Monkey.
''Thanks Monkey for showing up, you saved me a lot of discussion with this old man'', she thanked the Maniac silently, in a place where only she could hear it, her mind.
XXXXX
*BACK IN THE TEST TRACK*.
Nolo sped up down the entrance to the Test Track, and zoomed past Tork, right beside him, and he was startled by Nolo passing so close. So startled that he lost control of his car and spun out, crying out the words ''Watch out!'' in the process.
''Hey!, somebody tell that Maniac that this is my track now!'', Nolo advised to no one in particular as he produced from the front pocket of his right leg the Accelecharger. He inserted the dark green-coloured thing in the reader and his car instantly grew dark green, and he switched gears, sped up to 160 MPH and narrowed his eyes as he neared a gap in the track. He was prepared to go flying over it, but he instead went like he was still in a track.
He looked in the rearview mirror and saw that the 'Charger had created a vine track.
''Genial'', he observed in spanish, complimenting the Swamp Realm Accelecharger with the spanish word for ''cool''.
Tezla looked at the camera in the Control Room, passing it in slow motion.
''Interesting, the Swamp Accelecharger created a vine track instantly'', he stated proudly.
Monkey moved and accomodated in his chair so he could speak clearly to his leader.
''Hey, hey Tork, it's me Monkey!'', he announced.
Tork looked at his car's radio as Monkey proceeded, ''Try out the Nitrox 3 1/2 it's the best batch yet!''.
''Last time you cooked a new fuel it blew my engine'', Tork reminded Monkey, and the mechanic swallowed saliva in nervousness.
Monkey chuckled as he retorted, ''W-we-well i-it happens'', stammering.
Tork meditated about it for some seconds before responding, ''Alright Monkey, here goes''. And his right index finger slammed on the Nitrox booster button.
Aaaand the oil pressure gauge went from 60 to 0 in a flash, and his engine blew up as expected.
Tork growled in frustation as his car rolled to a stop.
''Maybe next time just a little bit of a liner mixture I guess'', Monkey nervously suggested to himself as he ran off the Control Room.
Nolo's car neared Tork's, and passed him yet again, the latino Teku leader smirking and chuckling at the misfortune of the Maniac African American leader.
Tork's scowl at Nolo intensified so much that if looks could kill, Nolo would be DED, NOT BIG SURPRISE. (TF 2 reference, where?, I DON'T OWN TEAM FORTRESS, I DON'T OWN VALVE'S GAMES, AND I DON'T OWN THE COMPANY).
Lani glanced at the three cars's HUDs in the computers of the Control Room. There was Ocean Thunder, everything normal, Octavio was still running.
Tork, out of service due to the mechanic's ''failure''.
And Nolo's car was beeping red and blue intermitently, as an alarm, along with a beep of alert.
''Uuuuh, Nolo, I am getting some strange feedback from your car, the Accelecharger may be putting some stress on it'', Lani advised him, glancing at the data in the computer screen.
''I decide when my cars had enough!'', Nolo spat out angrily. The Accelecharger gleamed strongly, with it's energy sound being made loudly.
''We have to know the Accelecharger's limits'', Tezla stated, while making a gesture with his left hand, clenching his fist and moving it in the air.
Nolo felt the car become harder to control, and the metal started creaking as if pressure was being made, no, actually, it was being made. He grit his teeth as he neared the gap he had surpassed. The vine track was there, but it withered away, becoming a more yellow-like, or brown-like green color, devoid of life, and vanishing into small particles that dissapeared into the spike pit below.
Nolo gasped as High Voltage's back turned to the left, the driver's door ripping itself off the car, and then, the momentum made it spin to the right, and Nolo completely lost control of it. He grabbed hold of the Accelecharger with his right hand, and with the left one he hastily unbuckled his seatbelt.
High Voltage slowed down and lost the rear right light blue tire, and went down the pit.
Lani gaped in horror as she stared at Nolo's car falling into the doom.
''Nolo!'', she cried out.
''I'm alright'', his familiar voice responded, and she couldn't help a small sigh of relief.
''What about the Accelecharger?!'', Tezla hurriedly inquired, indicating matter-of-factly that he preferred the computer-like chip over his driver's life.
Nolo chuckled audibly, and responded, ''No problem'', as he climbed his right hand to the edge of the track, and slid a bit.
Lani stood up from her chair and walked up to Tezla, while saying, ''I understand now why you didn't put the Emergency Driver Return in the cars sooner''. She made a pause for effect, ''it didn't matter if they made it back... Until they started taking Accelechargers into the realms'', she resumed.
''If you knew how important the Accelechargers are...''.
''Why don't you just tell me Doctor Tezla?'', Lani questioned, raising an eyebrow. ''What are the Drones going to do if they get them all?''.
''I don't know!'', Peter replied furiously, irritated. ''The more I study them, the less I understand them'', he apologized himself, ''I only know what I have to do''.
Lani looked up at him and her eyes narrowed a bit.
''What we have to do'', he corrected himself.
XXXXX
I sped down the Test Track, just over the gap was the exit so I would exit and I'd refuel my car in case a new Realm opened. Then I saw something over the edge and I quickly slowed down.
''Heeeey!, down here!'', a voice shouted, alerted by my car's braking.
I unfastened my seatbelt, and I got out of Ocean Thunder. I sprinted towards the edge and kneeled down, examining who was hanging.
''Nolo?'', I queried in amazement.
''Hey Oct, mind pulling me up?''.
''No problem man'', and with that response, I pulled Nolo up with my right arm, both his hands grabbing hold of my limb. He finally came out of where he was hanging and sighed.
''Thanks man, I don't know why I freaked out and thought that I could do something epic like astunt, I kind of freaked out, and I did something stupid in the end'', he excused himself.
''It's okay Nolo, we all do stupid things, it's what makes us humans'', I said to him in an attempt to comfort him. Fortunately enough for me, he smiled in acceptance and we climbed in my car, and I sailed over the edge and went out of the Test Track, heading towards the Teku garage.
XXXXX
We reached the Teku garage and stepped off my car. Nolo nodded to me, like if he was saying ''goodbye'', and briskly walked off to the lockers, with his helmet on his right hand. I took off mine as well, my blue racing helmet, which had the TEKU word written on the front and the sides, in a bright, white color, along with a dragon on the right, left and front of the helmet, of an equally white colour with light blue eyes.
I set it off inside Ocean Thunder and walked to where Karma was. She was working on the Drone that had came out of the Storm Realm with Vert. It was inside the skeletal testing car with a red spoiler. (QUICK A/N, anyone noticed how that training car looks a lot like Flathead Fury, Wylde's car in Breaking Point?).
Gig was hovering near her, and I heard him speak, ''Karma, I reactivated the Drone to study it's electronic brain''.
Karma tsked annoyingly, frowning, and replied with, ''I am not interested in how it thinks, I just wanna know how it drives''. With that, she typped some things in the computer, to start making the machine work. But she was interrupted by a loud noise to her left. She turned her head in said direction and saw Shirako bopping his head back and forth, back and forth as he listened to music loudly.
''Damn you, Asiatic, music-nuts fool'', she cursed under her breath.
Shirako's music had attracted some attention, as the music bounced up and down on the rocky, cavernous, brown walls of the Acceledrome.
Monkey was working along with Camila, Gale and Aurora on some red juice which was not wine, it was actually Nitrox, on a superb workbench consisting of a long oak wooden board put over two red barrels. He heard some hammering against metal and turned to his bulky, muscular friend, adressing him with a ''Ooaah, what are you doing, Pork Chop?'', of curiosity.
''Whaddoes it look like I'm doin', Monkey Man?, I'm givin' it some character!'', the Southerner replied with his thick accent and chuckled, before being irritated by the loud wail that was Shirako's music, and he set off to take that Stinku down, hammer slung over his right shoulder, his bone-collar bitten by his teeth so he could calm down his anger.
The clumsy Maniac mechanic studied the girls with a look of caution in his face, and then called out, ''We got trouble over here!'', attracting Wylde's attention, who immediately set off after Pork Chop.
The muscle of the Maniac's, and the crazy one of said team with a like for muscle vehicles reached the Teku garage. The cars present there were Battle Spec and Power Rage.
Kurt was resting inside Battle Spec, and looked to his right when he heard Pork Chop approaching.
''What are you doing in here?'', he queried to the redhead southerner.
The bone-collar wearing Maniac responded with the following, ''I'm gonna turn that noise DOWN!'', with an emphasis on ''down''.
Vert, who was idly standing around his rebuilt Power Rage, interjected, ''You Maniacs afraid of a little music?'', with a hint of a mocking tone, and with both his arms extended away as if it were not a big deal.
''Metal Maniacs ain't afraid of nothing'', Pork Chop confidently replied, holding tightly his hammer over his right shoulder with his right hand.
''Especially not scrap like you!'', Wylde insulted his older brother, pointing at him with his fist balled.
''You think you can take me, little brother?'', Kurt retorted, flouting of his younger sibling.
''Yeah, I learnt how IN PRISON!'', Wylde shot back, and in a surpresive way, he quickly grabbed hold of Kurt and pushed him against the hood of Power Rage, it's owner backing off, annoyed because his car was just new.
''My car, man!'', the blonde surfer whined.
Riiiiiiing. Riiiiing. Riiiiing. The alarms blared as Kurt was pushed against the hood of Vert's car. And the Wheel of Power had started to spin again, after a long time.
A new Realm was opening...