Chapter 26: The Race To Escape: Part 2
Ahead, the winding track is barely visible in the dark, as Kalin races onward in a stolen mine cart.
Pursued by two tag-team runners full of goons.
He watches the track ahead, then glances down at Niko, West and their dad, sitting in the bottom of the cart. "You're doing great, just stay down." Kalin says.
"Come on, boys!"
Kalin glances back, worriedly, at the runners chasing them.
The guy in the sidecar of the leading runner speaks. "We gotta take this riffraff down and haul 'em back! If they escape the mountain, Mr. Malcolm'll have our heads!"
"Leave us alone, you jerks!" Says West. "Get down, son!" Kalin goes for the brake bar and slows them down.
The nearest runner is practically on top of them. "Round 'em up, boys!"
"You wanna taste of the Kalin special?!"
As the runner rides up alongside them, Kalin punches the driver right in the face, knocking him off of his seat.
Kalin almost smiles, with satisfaction. "Round that up!" Kalin says.
The riderless runner, still with a guy in the sidecar, decelerates at a fairly controlled pace to roll alongside its counterpart.
The guy from the other sidecar jumps over to become the new driver and both runners get back on the chase.
The remaining sidecar rider speaks. "Dagummit, these runaways are a real thorn in my side! Huh?" Then he spots the metal collar around Dad's neck. "Heheheh. Collar 'im!"
The rider of the other runner draws and slaps down a card.
Dad grips his collar, teeth clenched to stifle more than groans of pain. "They've activated his collar! I've gotta do something!" Kalin thinks to himself. He moves to the back end of the cart, putting one foot up on the edge. "Kalin, what're you doing?!" Asks Niko.
Kalin pushes off and jumps from the back of the cart, delivering a flying kick to the rider who activated the collar, knocking him off of the seat. Kalin lands on the runner with his hands on the seat and his legs sticking over the back of it. Kalin pushes himself up and deactivates the collar with the runner's controls.
After a moment, their dad relaxes again, gasping for breath. Niko and West worry over him. "You okay?" Niko asks.
Meanwhile, Kalin has just managed to get himself to a sitting position on the runner, when…
"Behind you!" Says West.
Kalin looks back.
The two guys on the other runner are coming up fast. "You wanna dance, punk? Come on!" They ride up beside Kalin and ram him from the side.
Kalin skids over and scrapes along the wall on his shoulder, the one with the scarred stab wound through it.
West and Niko watch from the cart, anxiously. "Stay on, Kalin!" West says. "Don't fall!" Says Niko.
"Rrrrrrrgggghhhh!"
"Kalin!" West says. The mine cart is outrunning Kalin, disappearing into the dark.
Then, between the thugs' runner and the wall, Kalin's runner flips over and goes flying, and he is propelled forward and almost manages to grab the edge of the mine cart, Niko grabs his hand with both of hers. Kalin looks up at Niko, amazed. "Niko!" Says Kalin. He's now being pulled along behind the cart, like a kite on a string. West pulls on the cart brake with all his might. "Rrrrghhhh!"
The remaining runner donuts down the tunnel, losing momentum as it spins out. The sidecar rider says, impatiently… "Can't you drive?! They're gettin' away!" They right themselves and roar after the cart.
Niko is barely hanging onto Kalin's hand, as West hauls on the brakes. "Hold on!" Niko says. She strains and nearly loses her grip on Kalin's hand. West looks back, concerned, and hurries to help her. "Niko, hang on!" Says West. He grabs a hold of Niko around the waist, keeping her from falling out, and they pull together. "I'll be fine, Niko! Just let go!" Kalin says. "No way! I'm not letting go! We're getting out together!" Says Niko. "It's okay!" Kalin says. "No, it's not okay! You saved my father! Now, let me save you!" Says Niko. Kalin pauses a moment, then reaches up and grabs her wrist with his other hand. Dad joins in, and he and Niko pull Kalin back into the cart. Kalin hits the floor of the cart, gasping for breath. West, Niko and Dad lean over Kalin, anxiously. "You're okay." Niko says. "Deep breaths!" Says West. "Can ya stand?" Kalin stands up. "Nice work." Kalin says. Niko smiles at the praise. "You good to go?" Asks West. Kalin's whole face softens as he smiles, and nods once, before looking to Dad. "You saved my life." Kalin says. "You saved mine, I'm free 'cause of you." "That's not true. First of all, we're not free yet. And second of all, you're in this mine 'cause of people like me." Says Kalin. "I'm not here 'cause of you." Kalin gasps, truly startled by that statement. "What do you mean?" Kalin asks. West and Niko's dad closes his eyes and remembers.
Flashback. The sky is bright blue above the cow-skull sign that marks the entrance to Crash Town. "It's my own fault. Nothing I did ever went right and I couldn't make ends meet." He stands just inside the gate, Niko and West on either side of him. They look about the same ages as they are now, though Niko's dress looks much newer than it is today. Their dad looks much younger than the present, because he is far less worn. The newest hotshot in Crash Town wears a local duel disk on his hip and sturdy, comfortable pants, shirt and vest. He wears the blue pendant around his neck. "So, I came to Crash Town looking for an easy way out."
Change Flashback. "Happy trails!" A dusk duel is just ending, he slaps a card down on his duel disk and the air in front of his opponent in a red bandanna explodes. His Cyber Commander fades from the field.
West and Niko run up and hug him, laughing and cheering. "All right!" Says Niko. "You won!" West says. Dad kneels and he jumps into his arms. "Finally, I was getting to show my little ones that their dad could do something with himself! That I could be somebody, and take care of us! All my life I'd never reached my true potential, but things were finally turning around! But, that didn't last forever."
Change Flashback. He hits the ground hard on his back and his lifepoints fall to zero. He cringes and starts to sit up, and sees a dark figure looming over him, the man who loads duelists into coffins when they lose. He reaches for him with a black-gloved hand, blocking out the light of the sun. He can only stare up at him, in despair and terror. "Don't do it, please! Give me another chance!"
And the cart rolls off to the mines, a single coffin loaded on the back.
West and Niko run after the cart, as it rolls out of town. "Dad!" Says West. "Come back with him!" Niko says. The flashback ends.
Back to the present. "I knew the deal when I signed up. I was a desperate man, Kalin. A desperate man who felt like he had nothing to lose. In fact, part of me thinks I wanted to end up down here." Kalin gasps. "But, what about your kids?" Asks Kalin. Dad smiles down at West and Niko, both listening to the story, anxiously. "A man can get so blinded by self pity, he forgets that he's got something worth living for. I think a lot of men who come here are like that. They've lost their will to fight on and they come here ready to lose. But, not you. You've still got some fight in you. You're still strong." Kalin is listening, stunned. "Even in this dark place you see light! I know you do! And by risking your hide to help me and mine, you've shown me that light! I see it now, too!" "Huh?" Kalin asks.
Skylara and Lawton race on through the dark tunnels of the mountain.
"Eheheheh!" Lawton waits ready with his Gatling Ogre.
While Skylara's monster on the field is Trigger Happy.
"Here we go, it's my turn now!" Says Lawton.
"I have got four speed counters. The safety is off now and not only that, he has Gatling Ogre on his field. If he has drawn either a trap or a speed spell, I'm done-for." Skylara thinks to herself.
Lawton savors the moment, his drawn card held out to the side. "Heheheheheheheh!" Lawton glances at his card.
"What does he have?" Skylara thinks to herself.
"You sure lucked out this time. But now, I can release my Gatling Ogre, and summon Big Cannon Ogre in his place!" Lawton says.
"What? You're ditching Gatling Ogre? So, you had a backup plan?" Asks Skylara.
"That's right! The story's got multiple endings, but I'm afraid each an' every one of 'em's bad for you!" Lawton says.
Big Cannon Ogre is a level-seven fiend-type monster, with twenty-four hundred attack points and twenty-four hundred defense points.
"So, what is this big guy all about?" Asks Skylara.
"This here is Big Cannon Ogre, my friend! And he's all about being two tons of guts 'n' glory, and bringing a relentless barrage of destruction and mayhem everywhere he goes!" Lawton says.
"Sounds impressive on paper. However, he still doesn't have more attack points than my Trigger Happy." Says Skylara.
"That doesn't matter in this case. Do it, Big Cannon Ogre! Attack that Trigger Happy!" Lawton says.
"My gremlin!" Says Skylara.
"I activate the effect of 'Skill Successor' from within my graveyard. When I remove this card entirely from play, I can increase the attack points of one monster on my field by eight hundred until the end phase!" Lawton says. That's 3200 attack points. "Now, Big Cannon Ogre's ballistic barrage can shatter your monster's defenses! Go, Big Cannonfire!" Says Lawton.
Big Cannon Ogre fires and the shell punches a hole right through Trigger Happy, which spouts greenish-black smoke then explodes.
"Hnnngghh! Whoa, what gives?!" Skylara asks. Another large shell is descending on her, above the smoke. It hits and another explosion of smoke shrouds Skylara completely.
"Thanks to Big Cannon Ogre's special ability, the battle damage you take is doubled! That's what gives!" Says Lawton.
Skylara rides out of the smoke, she's down to 400 lifepoints now.
"Now that we're in the end phase, Big Cannon Ogre's attack points return back to normal. Looks like it's your move." Lawton says.
"I managed to hang on. However, if I don't turn this thing around, then I'm never getting out of this mine." Skylara thinks to herself. She looks back at the Big Cannon Ogre looming behind her, then ahead at the twisting, winding tunnels, barely visible even in her bright headlights. "I can do this. I just have to speed things up a little." Skylara thinks to herself.
Kalin brakes to moderate the cart's steep downhill speed. They zoom out of the incline, over a small rise and into more dark tunnels. Niko, West and Dad huddle together in the bottom of the cart, happily reunited.
Then Kalin hears a voice from behind them. "Faster!" The two goons on the runner have managed to catch up to them again.
"Man. These guys don't know when to quit!" Says Kalin. Dad rises up to look around. Forward, back, then ahead again at the track. Coming up, it forks into two caverns. "I worked here! If we break right at the fork up ahead, we can get to the outside!" "Are you sure?" Kalin asks. He looks behind.
The runner is gaining on them.
"If we can elude those guards until then!" Kalin thinks to himself.
The guy in the runner's sidecar speaks. "They gotta be kiddin' us! Surely they don't think it'll be that easy, let's see here! I press this, then that, then bam!" He manipulates the number keypad on a remote control, 1-0-8, then a key with a left arrow.
The lever beside the fork that switches its path has an electronic panel on it that reads 108, the light on it switches over to the left and the lever moves itself over to the left, remotely controlled.
The track switches. "They're diverting the track! Know where the left one goes?!" Asks Kalin. "Not where we wanna be!" The left-hand fork leads them out into a large cavern, dimly lit, the cold stone gives the lighting there a bluish tinge. The track continues downward out of sight in a spiral around the outer wall of the wide, cylindrical chasm.
The sidecar rider speaks. "Well, this oughta be pretty entertaining."
Niko and West have now also stood up in the cart, and he notices, across the cavern. "Huh?! Look, the track is broken down there!" West says.
The track has been damaged, leaving a substantial gap right after a fork whose other side leads off into a smaller tunnel.
"No! Ah!" Says West. He notices next that there's a lever, just like the first one, placed beside the fork. "If only we could change the track at that juncture!" West says. "If I could get down there, break the control console, and then switch the track manually, hm." Dad picks up a rock from the bottom of the cart and stuffs it down the front of his jumpsuit, pushing Kalin a bit to the side so he can reach the side of the cart. "Dad?" Asks West. "You have a plan?" Niko asks. "Kalin, listen. No matter what happens, I beg of you, make sure my kids get outta here." Kalin gasps. "What are you talking about?!" Asks Niko, whimpering. "You kids listen to me. Kalin is going to get you outta here, you do what he says." West and Niko moan slightly, worried. "Stop talking like that! We're all gonna get outta here, together!" Kalin says. "Well, right now all that matters is you getting my kids out! There's no other way." Dad looks down, they're approaching the section of track directly above the broken portion and the crucial juncture. "Don't do it, Dad!" Says West. "Father, please! Noooo!" Niko says. Despite their pleading, he jumps.
"Aaaaaahh!" He catches himself by the lever of the juncture, hanging over the edge by it. He lets go of his grip with one hand and hangs on by the other, groaning with effort.
Kalin, West and Niko watch, anxiously. "He made it!" Says West. "Father!" Niko says.
The runner's sidecar rider still has his remote. "What is that fool doin'?!" He presses a button on the remote.
And the light on the side of the juncture turns red, locked. Grimacing with effort, West and Niko's dad reaches into his jumpsuit and gets the rock he brought, smashing it against the console, again and again. The lights start to spark with electricity, until one final smash darkens them.
The sidecar rider's remote goes blank. "What in tarnation?! Ah!"
He pulls himself up, pushing the lever he's hanging from. He can barely reach far enough, can barely move it. But the track begins to change. "Aaaaaaaggghhh!"
"He's switchin' the tracks! Collar 'im!" The driver plays a card, swiftly.
His arm that was pushing him up leaves the ledge to grip his collar and he loses ground, as the lever slides back down with the force of his weight. The track begins to shift back.
"Hang on!" Says West.
Sweat breaking out on his face, he lets go of his collar and strains back upward, pushing with everything he's got. At last, the lever reaches the other side of the panel and he slumps over it, halfway up onto the ledge.
The track clicks into place.
He moans and grips his collar, in pain, and loses his grip on the lever panel, he just barely manages to grip the edge of the platform with one hand. He moans, but looks up, the mine cart is approaching.
"Climb up!" West says. "Hop in!" Says Niko.
"Keep going! Don't slow down! Get outta here!"
"Ah!" Both West and Niko say.
He smiles, wearily.
Kalin gasps, seeing something in that smile.
He grips the edge of the panel harder.
"Daddy, no!" Says both West and Niko.
"I'll find you! Keep going!"
And the mine cart zooms past into the side tunnel. West and Niko are sobbing. Kalin looks absolutely thunderstruck.
The runner doesn't even slow down and follows them into the tunnel. The sidecar rider speaks, as they ride out into a lit cavern. "We can't let 'em leave this mountain! C'mon, we'll…"
Kalin comes out of nowhere and punches the driver off of his seat, having waited to ambush them. "We need to borrow your vehicle, if that's okay!" Kalin says.
The driverless runner careens into a nearby rock wall and the sidecar rider falls out.
"Thanks!" Says Kalin. Before the two riders know what hit them, he's riding away, with Niko riding behind, clinging to his waist, while West rides in the sidecar. They ride into another tunnel, the kids still sobbing a bit. "Knock it off! Your dad doesn't want you to sit here and cry like babies! He wants you to be fierce and brave and angry and full of spirit and, um!" Kalin says. The two kids are still sobbing, tears show at the corners of Niko's eyes. "I'm so sorry, you guys. I-I didn't mean to shout at you like that." Says Kalin. West looks up at him, tears still in his eyes. "Your dad's gonna be okay. He'll find a way out, you heard him." Kalin says. "You think so?" Asks Niko. "You believe in him, don't you?" Kalin asks. "Yeah." Says West. "Yeah." Niko says. "And so do I!" Says Kalin. They roar onward through the tunnels.
"It is my turn!" Skylara says.
Lawton gasps, that doesn't sound good.
"From my hand, I'm activating the 'Fallen Angel' speed spell!" Says Skylara.
"What?" Lawton asks.
"I can activate this speed spell when I have five or more speed counters! It allows me to summon one synchro monster by taking the monsters required to synchro-summon it from my graveyard and removing them from play! Both my level-one Wrecking Ball and my level-five Zook are in my graveyard! So, I remove them from play. And now, I synchro-summon Drobot!" Says Skylara. Drobot has 2400 attack points and is a level 6 monster.
They race onward into a dimly-lit cavern of reddish stone.
"Next, I activate Drobot's special ability. By cutting his attack points in half, Drobot can attack you directly!" Skylara says.
"Whoa, say that again?!" Asks Lawton.
Skylara goes into a sideways shred. "Don't worry, you heard me correctly. Go, Drobot! Attack!" Skylara says.
"From my graveyard, I activate the 'Explosive Wall' trap! This powerful little beauty'll get rid of everything, removing your attacking monster and every single card on my field, permanently from play!" Says Lawton.
"Anybody mind if I cut in?" Kalin asks.
Lawton turns.
Kalin, Niko and West, on the stolen sidecar runner, are riding alongside the duel on a ledge above.
"Kalin?!" Asks Skylara.
"Hang on tight, you two!" Kalin says. Next, with a shout of effort, he jumps the runner over the side of the ledge. "Ah!" Kalin's stolen runner bounces on the top panel of Lawton's giant runner, throwing him off balance and slamming him into the wall.
Kalin, Niko and West land on the path where Lawton was, and follow Skylara into the next tunnel, pulling even.
"Kalin, you made it." Says Skylara.
Kalin smiles.
Skylara returns it, then notices, up ahead, a point of light. "There is the exit. Let's go." Skylara says.
Lawton has recovered and is racing up behind them. "You punks! Nobody escapes this mountain! Huah!" Says Lawton.
"Heads up." Skylara says.
"Ah?!" Asks Kalin, West and Niko.
Lawton's runner has extended the stilts on its legs, allowing Lawton to pass right over them, his wheels rolling in between the smaller runners, to now be riding in front of them, blocking the exit. "Hmhmhmhm. I activate 'Explosive Wall'! You wanna get outta here? Let me help you." Lawton says. He's holding a bundle of dynamite with the fuses connected to a timer. "This way you can really go out with a bang!" Says Lawton. He taps a button, putting four hundredths of a second on the timer and tosses it over his shoulder at them.
"Look out!" Skylara says.
The dynamite lands on the tunnel floor in front of them.
BOOM! The side of the mountain explodes, bright against the early dawn. The air fills with smoke.
Kalin, Niko and West are flung out one side of the cloud, thrown free of the stolen runner.
Skylara and her runner go flying a different direction.
Lawton, still on his runner, emerges from the cloud, laughing, despite being flung high into the air.
Within the smoke cloud, Big Cannon Ogre and Drobot vanish.
Kalin is falling through the air, barely conscious. He wakes with a start when he hears…
"Kalin!" Says Niko. She reaches a hand toward him, terrified.
Kalin turns over in midair to reach for Niko's hand. "Grab my hand!" Kalin says.
They almost reach, but the wind is pulling them further apart.
"Kalin! Nooo!" Says Niko.
"Niko-o-o!" Kalin says.
As he falls, eyes closed, West still grips his dad's pendant. West groans, slightly, as his grip loosens and the pendant flies free.
Skylara's runner bounces on the hard lip of a stone canyon below and falls over the edge. Making more noise, Skylara herself does much the same. "Whoaaaa-oh! Unh!"
And Kalin is the next to tumble into the canyon, bouncing on the rim. "Nnnggggghhh-uh! Unnnh!"
And the pendant falls in after them.
Niko and West lie sprawled on the lip of the canyon, groaning.
Over the horizon, straight out of the sun, walks Lawton. Lawton favors his right arm, carefully, and his left wears a sheath of ripped-off plastic, probably from his runner, but he is still chuckling evilly. Lawton looks to the side, over the edge of the canyon. "Those two meddling blockheads are as good as gone! Heheheheheheheh!" Says Lawton. He approaches the kids, lying prone on the rock, their breath hoarse and groaned with pain.
Lawton returns to town, Niko and West each tied up and tied to one of the arms of his runner. The two are still not quite awake, eyes closed, breathing painfully.
Malcolm, also, is not quite awake, he moans, grumpily, and wakes up. "Did I fall asleep? Huh?!" Malcolm asks. He's just realized that he's tied to a chair. "Hey, what's this?!" Asks Malcolm. "We tied you up while you were snoring away." Barb says. Lawton is sitting across the table, she is standing at his shoulder. Both of them snicker. Malcolm is entirely lost, but is just realizing he's been had, you almost have to feel sorry for the guy. Malcolm's too wounded to be angry. "And why didja do that?" Asks Malcolm. Barb shows him a piece of paper. "Remember last night when you signed the deed of the town over to me? Well, I may have forgotten to mention that I was married to your brother." Barb says. "Wha-what're you talkin' about? You're married to Lawton?!" Asks Malcolm. "She sure is. So, whatever belongs to Barbara…" Lawton says. Barb giggles and sits in his lap, handing him the deed. "Well, it belongs to me, too." Says Lawton. Now Malcolm's starting to get angry. "You betrayed me! How dare you! Agh!" Malcolm says. Barb just kicked over the table, which in turn knocked over his chair. "You're talkin' to the new king and queen a' Lawtontown, brother!" Says Lawton. They both laugh. "You two think you can get away with this?!" Malcolm asks. "Just ask them." Says Lawton.
About fifteen or twenty goons in red bandannas are standing over Malcolm, each one with a duel disk activated on their arm. This does not look good for Malcolm.
At the bottom of the ravine. Skylara and Kalin are just barely starting to recover from the fall, lying prone on the ground, shaking. Kalin pushes himself up on his hands.
Skylara soon does the same, gritting her teeth, in pain. It looks as if Skylara was protecting her stomach more than the rest of herself, her arm is still lying against the lower half of her stomach.
"I'm no good to anyone." Kalin says.
Skylara looks at him, surprised.
Kalin crouches on his hands and knees, shaking with more than just pain. Kalin stifles a sob. "I break everything I touch. Their dad put his trust in me, and I just let him down. I let everyone down!" Says Kalin.
Skylara takes off her helmet and throws it aside, stands up and zips up her coat, stopping when she comes just short of her chest, almost as if she's trying to hide something. "Don't be so hard on yourself. You did everything you could for those kids." Skylara says.
"But, my everything wasn't enough, Skylara! Huh?" Asks Kalin. He's just noticed something sparkling in the dirt nearby. It's the pendant.
A short while later. Skylara and Kalin, having pulled themselves out of the canyon, now stand atop the same ledge they did before, overlooking the field of discarded duel disks stuck into the ground with spikes. Both are silent for a long moment. "Well, here we are again." Kalin says. He walks over to the nearest spike and looks at the pendant one last time, before hanging it over the top of the spike, gently. Kalin kneels down and stares at it, mourning.
Skylara walks over and stands by Kalin. "I'm so sorry. I failed! If only I'd tried harder! I guess, Malcolm and his gang have won the fight!" Says Kalin. He is startled out of his sorrow by a whirring sound. A light on the side of the duel disk has lit up, shimmering with color, the duel disk's holoprojector just activated. "Kalin, look at that. Looks like that duel disk still has power." Skylara says. "It's a sign. I can't give up here. It's time for me to stand up and duel for what's right!" Says Kalin. He smiles, pulls the pendant off of the stake and then places his arm inside the band of the duel disk, snapping it off the stake and raising it high. "I will fight for those who have lost their freedom! And as for those who take advantage of the lost and the desperate, I will show them that justice has a name and a face!" Kalin says. "Kalin, whatever you are thinking. I got your back." Says Skylara. Kalin lowers the duel disk, looks over his shoulder at her and nods. Kalin's noticed the new way Skylara's wearing her coat and seems to have come to a conclusion, but decides not to bring it up. Skylara must have heard his thoughts and smiles, slightly, giving a subtle nod. Kalin returns the smile, he figured it out and he's happy about it.
The sun is rising over this lonely field of duel disks, dispelling the ghostly mist of predawn.
Skylara steps forward to stand beside Kalin, facing into the sunlight. "Does he know?" Kalin asks. "No, I haven't told anyone about it. Your the first one to know." Says Skylara. "How far along?" Kalin asks. "Perhaps, only a couple weeks or so." Says Skylara. "I see." Kalin says. He turns to face the sunlight. "Bad news, Lawton. There's a new sheriff in town. Let's go save those kids!" Says Kalin.