Chapter 25: Chrome Realm (part 5)
"I absolutely hate it when she's logical like that," Talia grumbled under her breath as she sped towards the portal, the darkness blurring as her car accelerated towards two hundred miles an hour. "And it's even worse when she's right."
"Hey, I just don't want you passing out on us." Verity shot back, causing Talia to roll her eyes and mutter a few more things under her breath.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Talia said in an icy tone. "That doesn't mean I have to like it."
Verity groaned and went back to crashing into Drones. Talia muted the radio for a moment before allowing a few curses to slip past her lips. Was it a juvenile reaction? Absolutely, but at that moment Talia really didn't care.
The Latina sighed and shook her head. That turned out to be a mistake since it made the dizziness increase. Groaning she lifted a hand to her head, unsurprised when it came back bloody. The girl made a mental note to clean her face off a bit before Lani saw her. Of course, if Talia passed out, she wouldn't have to worry about the Hawaiian's reaction.
Well, at least not for a while, anyway.
Deep down, Talia knew that Verity and the others were right. There was darkness creeping at the edges of her vision, and she was lightheaded from blood loss. There was a pounding pain in her head, one that hurt so much that is almost drowned out the pain in her ribs. Right now, the girl guessed that there was a pretty good chance that she was close to passing out.
Another delighted whoop from Aurora caused the Latina to glance back down the track. She could just catch glimpses of her four teammates dishing out some serious damage to the Drone forces. Aurora herself was busy shoving them off of the track left and right. Well, at least she seemed to be having a good time.
Talia really owed Verity and the others for forcing her to go through the portal first, much as she hated to admit it. She definitely needed to get medical attention as soon as what was humanly possible. And right now, that meant speeding down the last hundred or so feet of pavement.
The girl really was lucky that there weren't any extreme twists and turns left in the Realm. With her semi-addled mind, Talia probably would have driven clean over the edge of the track. That would not have been a pleasant way to go.
The blue wormhole was approaching, the symbol of the Realm flashing brightly in the center. It was only mere feet away. Talia closed the gap in seconds and shot through the air, hitting the portal dead on. With a flash of light, both the girl and the symbol were gone, safely out of the Realm.
As soon as his sister made tracks for the portal, Nolo stood up and left the room.
"Aw, dude, where are you going?" Shirako asked, eyes still glued to the screen that was displaying the camera feed from his sister's truck.
"Down to go check up on Talia," Nolo replied before vanishing out the door, taking the stairs two at a time in his haste. Shirako and Vert looked each other in mild shock.
"He does remember that Talia hates him, right?" Vert wondered. His teammate shrugged.
"Probably." He said after a moment of contemplation.
"So why is he going down there if there's a very good chance that Talia's going to pick a fight with him?" The blonde surfer demanded.
"Aw, dude, beats me." Shirako shrugged once more and went back to watching his sister decimate the Drones. "You and I both know he's stubborn like that."
"This is awesome! Man, if I get to do this in every Realm, I'm going to be one happy racer!"
Terra sighed as Aurora continued to chatter away. Why on earth did the blonde have to be so insufferably cheerful? Honestly, it was as if the girl was on a permanent sugar and caffeine-induced high. How could someone have that much energy all of the time?
"Oh man, oh man, if only Greenie could see me right now." Aurora cackled before smashing into another Drone. "Whoops!"
"If he saw you right now, he'd think you've gone mad," Terra muttered aloud.
"Who, me? Nah, I'm one hundred percent sane!" Aurora went back to wrecking Drones, laughing loudly. Gale merely bumped her music up another level to drown out the crazed giggling, while Terra let out a sigh.
"Look, I know you're having fun, but try and rein yourself in a little," Verity said as she blocked another Drone from trying to slip past the girls. "There are a lot of Drones in here, and if we get too distracted we're going to be run over."
"Aw man." Aurora pouted slightly but nonetheless dialed back a little on her fun. Gale glanced backward, only to wince as she caught the bright flash of light emanating from the portal as Talia escaped.
"Yo, Talia's made it out." She reported. "Think we should bail?"
"You only have five minutes left," Lani said. "You all need to get out of there as quickly as possible."
"Let's get out of here." Verity decided before spinning her car around and speeding off, activating the nitrox boosters in her vehicle to put some distance between herself and the Drones. The rest of the Metal Teku followed suit, and soon four distinct lines of purple flames were scorching the track. The Drones, having lost their chance to win the Accelecharger, only pursued the humans because they, too, were now trying to get out of the Realm.
Aurora was still cracking jokes as they rushed towards the portal, the four girls hitting it and soon entering the interdimensional tunnel that would take them back to the Acceledrome. As it turned out, Aurora was the only one still talking. Gale was lost in her music, while Terra retreated to her cold and stony demeanor. Only Verity's silence was out of character, born more out of worry than of fear.
The girl knew that her friend had been badly injured. The only question was how severe those injuries truly were.
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