Finally, an update! I think this may be it for a while, I mean, it took me atleast two days to even decide what to do for one of the teams. But I think I'm at a comftorable spot to start another, smaller story. So, maybe that'll help with what seems like on-coming Writer's Block.
Chapter 14: Emerald Mines: Act II
As the hill leveled from its drop, it bumped sharply, lifting the riders an inch into the air and quickly back down. Up ahead, Team Raket could see the lights from oil lamps in rows on either side of the track, as they flew by, the gems in the walls sparkled beautifully. They were quickly thrown up hill once again and around a rough right turn, right into waiting bat robots. Sonia hit the closest ones wing, sending it spiraling down. Raket's telekinesis destroyed ten of the foes at once, Light grabbed a passing by bot, the light on its head flickering crazily as it struggled, the fox threw the 'bot into a small group coming at him. Light's weapon crashed through the machines, sending them to join their fallen comrades. Sonia took out another bunch with a well-timed punch, throwing two of the nocturnal attackers into more. With their numbers quickly decreasing, the bat 'bots retreated, quickly disappearing into surrounding darkness.
"Well, that was easy." Light commented, watching the bats fly away.
"Probably bringing back more." Raket said. The three suddenly turned sharply, almost throwing them out of the cart. The sharp curve brought them back into the light. The three Mobians paled at the sight of the next obstacle.
"That's not supposed ta be on a mine track..." Light said staring at the loop their cart was speeding towards.
"Oh Chaos..." Sonia groaned, her attention suddenly snapped back. "We gotta stop this thing before we hit the loop!"
"How? There's no brake." The cart hit a hard bump on the track before Sonia could answer, the force of the hit sent them forward faster. With nothing working, the three held tightly to the sides of the cart and closed their eyes as their ride went smoothly over the track and into the loop. Another small bump told the trio they had survived the loop. They opened their eyes to see another danger ahead of them. A yellow sign with a black cross-bone printed into its center was held in place on the track's left side. Two orange lights flashed on the top of the sign. The members of Team Raket paled again at the sight of the sign and the carts sudden acceleration.
"We're gonna go off the edge!" Sonia cried out. Raket struggled to look ahead, the track turned to a fork in the road. There was no way they could guess which track to take...Or was there? Looking back, Raket could still see the sign flashing on the left side of the track. Straining his eyes, he could see they were bound toward the left track once it split. An idea suddenly came to him.
"Sonia, Light, when I say 'now' throw yourself to the right side of the cart." The hedgehog instructed. No one questioned him and did so as Raket cried out the word. The hedgehog quickly jumped to the other side as they passed the split and leveled their cart to the track. Another cart and track became visible in the dim light and the three riding appeared. Team Gracious. The chameleon, Kaity, held out a hand holding Sonia's laser rifle.
"This yours?" she asked over the sounds of the track and carts. Sonia gratefully took the rifle and thanked the group as it transformed once again to its keyboard necklace form. Nothing more could be said before the three females plummeted down into darkness. Another sign came up as their cart was gradually slowing; it looked like the one they had seen before, except the center of the sign was printed with Eggman's logo.
"Eggman, here we come." Sonia snarled, getting ready for the fight to come.
OoOoO
Darkness. Pure black was all the three Guardians could see. The cart hit a level track with a hard bump, lightly tossing the trio into the air. As they rumbled down the track, they noticed the drop of the temperature they had before failed to notice. The Guardian on Light looked around, it was like she had her eyes closed; absolutely nothing was visible. Not even her hand she guessed was in front of her nose. Cloud shuttered, if there was one thing she didn't like, it was pure darkness. For what seemed like hours, the only sounds that were heard were the wheels squeaking as they revolved and the quiet clatter of the cart going over the bumpy track. A female voice suddenly broke the silence.
"Where are we?" Acio wondered. The remaining two had asked themselves that very question, but did not voice their thoughts.
"Probably on one of the old mine tracks. The ones they used to get the gems deeper in the mine." Anash answered at last.
"Then where's the lamps?" Cloud pointed out, gesturing to the blackness around them. Though no one saw the gesture.
Anash's shrug wasn't seen in the darkness, "Out, maybe? It's been a while since these were used, after all."
"Other ones worked." Acio said, adding to Cloud's point. Another silence took over as the only male on the team tried to think of a reasonable counter. Before he could speak, the cart hit a bump and sped them up. A hard left brought them into a tunnel of light. The three blinked a few times, adjusting to the sudden light. Their cart went steadily along the track, the tunnel around them slowly widening out. A sign similar to the one Team Raket saw came into view, only this sign was on the right side of the track. Despite the smooth ride, the cart gained speed, too much to be comfortable with. Team Guardian went through quickly, a fork in the road closing in quickly. The sign from before flashed through Acio's mind; something bad was about to happen. Cloud and Anash must have gotten the same idea; they looked at one another, racking their minds for a way to safety. 'Which side was the sign on?' Cloud asked herself, hoping it had some significance to their decision. She was sure it had been the right. The hedgehog's mind worked quickly, looking for a way to be sure that she and her team would was safe, and their cart was bound toward the right, the track the sign was obviously warning them about. An idea suddenly struck Cloud. Her teammates looked at her, having the same thought. They nodded in unison as the time to decide which track came. All three threw themselves to the left side of the cart, their combined weight and force tipping it onto two wheels, assuring they would go to the left track. It almost toppled, but Anash quickly jumped to the other side and balanced it levelly on the track. The three sighed in relief, for a moment, they had doubted their plan. A smooth curve turned them right, followed by left turn. The cart kept its speed, pulling them down a small hill and under another track; Cloud looked up, surprised to see others. A female hedgehog was looking at something, she couldn't quite see what, but she could see a yellow fox and a silver hedgehog in the same cart. The only female looked up from what she was looking at.
"Eggman, here we come." She snarled. That was all she heard before they were taken back up hill and level under the other team's track. Another gentle curve brought them out from under the other track, and up-hill, passing another track. This one with a cart holding the three she recognized and was set on catching.
"Everyone ready?" the tan female fox asked, looking at her team. The hedgehog didn't hear the answer as they flew up the hill and past a sign with Eggman's logo printed on.
OoOoO
The three seedrians plummeted down, the wind whistling around them. They took a sharp left curve almost immediately after they touched down from the drop. Laya let out a yelp at the hard turn, falling into Cosmo. Oil lamps slowly began to appear on either side of the tunnel they had entered during some point of their ride through darkness, lighting the area dimly.
"Laya, we need more light." Sumowa said, turning to her youngest sister. The fire-controlling seedrian nodded and obliged to her sister's request. Now that the track was visible, they watched it for a moment, bracing themselves for another fall. It seemed to be a straight track for a while. Cosmo looked around quickly; the fluttering of wings had already reached her ears. But none of the bat robots came into view.
"They must be hiding..." she said quietly, glancing over to her sisters. They must not have heard it. Laya seemed focused in the tracks, and Sumowa seemed deep in thought, probably trying to make sense of the whole situation. This left Cosmo to watch for enemies. As the three went quietly along, Cosmo thought she could hear a small beep coming from her left. Nothing but a dirt wall with gems sticking out.
'I must be hearing things...' she thought, slightly worried. But when the beeping came back, louder and seemed to have more, all three looked around. The sound was coming from everywhere. Sumowa was the first to figure it out. As they went by, a blue jewel seemed to flicker a faint tint of red...a bomb.
"Oh no..." she murmured, growing slightly pale. "This whole tunnel is gonna blow!" the rainbow seedrian told her sisters, looking for a way to accelerate their cart. Her sisters joined her frantic search. The cart hit a hard bump, jolting them forward.
"I've got an idea!" Laya announced suddenly, grabbing one of the jewels from the wall as they flew by.
"Laya! What're you doing!?" Cosmo and Sumowa cried out.
"Just watch." The youngest seedrian threw the jewel bomb in front of the cart, another bump hit them and they accelerated. "We have to hit something to go faster!" the seedrian didn't wait for an answer from her shocked sisters, she reached across to the wall again, it was getting farther from them. She managed to grab a purple gem and a yellow gem and threw the first one in front of them. They accelerated. The other seedrians reached out for the jewels, taking as many as they could for speed reasons. There was another beep then a click and the tunnel behind them rumbled from the far-off sound of an explosion catching up quickly. That seemed like enough inspiration for the team to throw as many as of the gems that they could. The ride was rough and bumpy, but they went faster, narrowly escaping the tunnel and soaring up-hill. Laya's hand was once more lit for a source of light. The three were slightly shaken by the near-death experience, but they relaxed as they reached the top of the hill and continued on straight.
"Now how do we slow down?" Cosmo asked, looking over to her youngest sister.
Laya shrugged. "I was kinda hoping one of you would figure that out..." she admitted quietly. Another hill took them up, passing another track, only Cosmo could look down, even so, not for very long. The green seedrian studied the other track, trying to remember if they had been there before. Another cart went by, suddenly being shot up, past the three. Through the dim light Laya's flame provided, Cosmo could see a white tiger holding onto the sides of the cart. 'Haven't I seen her before?' the green plant girl wondered. She never got her answer as the three went by a yellow sign marked with Eggman's logo leading into a darkened tunnel.
OoOoO
The three went sharply up-hill as they touched down, and flew around a hard curve. Snow groaned as her chameleon friend slammed into her from the force of the turn.
"Sorry..." the chameleon apologized quietly pulling herself into a sitting position. Another smoother turn took the detectives into a tunnel lined with the familiar oil lamps that were set through out the mine.
"Okay, what now?" Waffle asked, resting her elbow on the rim of the cart.
"I guess we wait until the cart stops and find Eggman." Snow shrugged. The three exited the tunnel into more darkness. "And we actually get to see which way we're going." Snow added with a sigh. As she said this, something dropped to the floor of the cart with a light thunk. Realizing it was closer to her, the white tiger carefully picked up the object. A quick dip and turn took them through a short tunnel, but it was enough light to see what the object was.
"Didn't that crazy hedgehog girl have that?" Waffle asked, trying to think of the hedgehog's name.
"Yep." Kaity nodded, taking the keyboard rifle.
"We should return it."
"How? We're stuck traveling in a mine."
"But she's probably here if that is." Waffle pointed out. The chameleon blinked, though unseen in the darkness that now surrounded them.
"Look, a sign." Snow cut in, pointing ahead to an orange flashing light connected to a yellow sign that was just barely seen through the dark. "What's it say?"
The vixen in the group strained her eyes to see as they neared the sign. The orange lights helped a little, she could see what looked like black tracks printed onto the yellow surface. "Looks like mine tracks...uh oh..." The vixen saw the picture clearly for a moment as the orange light flashed; it was the mine tracks printed on the sign, the only thing Waffle did not see until after is that the sign pictures broken mine tracks. "Broken..." she murmured.
"Whadda we do?" Kaity asked, acting calmer then she felt.
"We get out." Snow said, hearing the rumble of an approaching cart just next to them. "Come on." Without waiting, she grabbed both teammates by the wrist and carefully jumped over to the next track, landing them safely into another cart. Neither of the two had a chance to thank her before the new cart shot roughly uphill, into a dimly lit area where their track lined with another. Team Raket's track.
Kaity put the rifle out at arm's length upon seeing the surprised faces of the team. "This yours?" she asked. The hedgehog, who they now remembered as 'Sonia' thanked the three and took back the rifle. Team Gracious plummeted down suddenly, knocking the wind from them. As the three went sharply down, they passed what looked like a floating flame in another cart, though none of the three really took a close look. It seemed like they had been climbing the hill forever until a yellow sign holding Eggman's logo at last came into view as they continued up.
"Everyone ready?" Waffle asked, tightening her grip on the sides of their cart.
"Yep." Snow answered, staring hard at the track dimly lit in front of them.
"Ready." Kaity added, a sly grin going slowly over her muzzle. The smile, however, dropped, as did the hard stare at the track as they sped up and saw the hole in their way. The three could only scream as they went into a free-fall down the giant gap.
can't think of anything to say...Except that this looked bigger in the document!