Chapter 27 – Scrapyard Challenge
About two hours after he had stomped off from the hotel in an enraged fit, G continued to stroll down the road to whoever it lead, in all honesty, he didn't really care where he was going, just that he had to get some space between himself and the others, and when G sets his mind on something he goes all out. For the first hour, all G did was walk in silence, then for the next half hour he started mumbling random stuff to himself, and finally after that came half hour of violent kicks to nearby trees and the occasional outburst.
"Lousy, ungrateful layabouts!" he blurted out, punching a hole in a nearby sheep paddock. "It's not my fault that we're being chased by villains! I didn't ask for any of this! Author, if you can hear me, you have picked a lousy bunch of gits to cast in this story with me!"
Well that was rude! If my character could hear me right now I'd be giving him a scolding for saying such things, those other creators worked hard for those guys too! Anyhoo, regardless to certain feelings of anger, there was a couple of individuals that still seemed to be on his side in the argument.
"Uh… G?" said a small familiar voice from behind him. "Who are you talking to?"
It was only then that G bothered to look behind him, as it turns out he had been so wrapped in in his own ramblings that he had failed to notice a trio of his own group members following his every step. A trio consisting of Nyx, Edward and… Aria? Of course the first two he understood, but Aria too? What was going on here?
"Guys?" G gasped, completely astonished by the company. "What are you three doing here?"
"We followed you after you stormed off," Nyx explained. "We would have let ourselves know sooner but it looked like you needed a bit of time to yourself so we just kept our distance for a while."
They had been following him all this time? Well at least there were SOME members of the group you still seemed to care.
"Goggles had no right to say any of those things G," Edward said, adding his own piece.
However at those words, G merely sighed with a heavy frown.
"No, he did," he retorted. "In all honesty I can't really blame any of them for thinking that way, a lot of stuff has been going wrong lately."
But much to everyone's surprised, Aria of all people scoffed at that remark.
"True, but at least you're trying," she said, causing a few eyebrows to rise.
"And here I thought you'd be siding with Adagio on this one," G admitted, not really knowing what else to say in this situation.
Aria then crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at that.
"My sister may be the main brains of our little trio but we don't exactly see eye-to-eye most of the time," she explained. "And personally I think what she said back there is completely insane. True, this new voice isn't what we had before, but she was willing to just throw it away just because we landed somewhere with a bathtub? Tell me that's not stupid!"
It may have sounded petty but at the very least Aria was clearly trying to see a fault in her sister's idea of staying in this dimension, and was making a VERY good argument about it.
"She does have a point." Edward admitted, giving a small shrug of his shoulders.
"Look G, I may not like you very much but I know for a fact that you're the best option we have at the moment," Aria continued, causing a small smile to appear on Nyx's face. "Even if the others can't see it now, it doesn't stop it from being true."
Now G's jaw couldn't help but drop, ARIA was on his side!? She must seriously despise the idea of going back to square one with her voice again, then again she could just be siding with G just to piss off Adagio, which is something she would most likely do. However Nyx thought differently, being somewhat experienced in having a not-so-good personality in her earlier days, she could tell when someone was actually trying to be nice, and to her Aria seemed to be filling in that role.
"And here I thought I would never see the day where I actually agree with one of the Dazzlings," she said with a slight chuckle, causing Aria to turn her head away with an embarrassed scoff.
Aria's embarrassment aside, Nyx wasn't the only one who was affected by her speech, in fact the second she said it, G couldn't help but crack a smile. At this point he looked at the trio and thought that he couldn't have a better group of friends at this point.
"Thanks guys, I appreciate the effort," he said, smiling sheepishly. "It means a lot, really."
"Laura would have been here too but I'm sure she's still a little nervous when it comes to confrontation," Nyx explained, no doubt recognising the Living Genre's curiosity as to why the Keidran wasn't with them. "But judging from what I saw on her face, I'm sure she feels the same way we do."
"So you really think something is wrong with those three back at the hotel?" Aria asked bluntly, bringing back the main point of the issue into the conversation. "Nyx told me a few things while we followed you."
At those words, G's smile faded as he remembered the reason he was having concerns before he left the hotel, in fact now that Aria brought the subject up he began to feel guilty about leaving the others there.
"I'm not sure in all honesty," he admitted with another sigh. "Maybe I'm just being paranoid but I just can't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. Those people back there, I know for a fact that they shouldn't be like what they are now."
Nyx couldn't help but feel confused about that statement.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked curiously.
"Well, it's just that…" G started in reply, only to stop as something caused him to start sniffing the air.
It may have been difficult for him now that his nosebleeds were messing up his sense of smell, but if he could pick up something now, then it must mean that he was within a certain range. While it may be true that he could no longer tell just HOW close, the general direction was still caught in the wind.
"I smell something!" he declared.
Of course first thing that popped into everyone's heads when he said that, wasn't a pleasant thought.
"Rahzar!?" Nyx squealed, hiding behind Edward's leg in terror.
However G was confident that it wasn't the mutant the followed them here, in fact from what he could tell, whatever he was smelling wasn't even moving at all.
"No, it's something else," he said reassuringly, allowing everyone else to calm down. "Definitely not from around here though. THIS WAY!
And with that, the trio then followed G as he ran further down the road, following the smell he could pick up. Luckily the area they were in was still pretty isolated compared to other places, thus the quad of misfits were pretty safe as they ran, about ten minutes later, they arrived at their destination.
"You followed you nose to the local junkyard!?" Aria exclaimed, staring with disbelief at the sign in front of her.
This was indeed true, after following his nose towards a general direction, the smell became strong enough for G to pinpoint something close enough to an exact position, which was odd since he apparently wasn't able to when they arrived at the Bodega Bay Inn. The place in question this time though was of course the local junkyard, the reek of rusty metal and other random pieces of smelly garbage filled the air as the four came closer towards the large steel gate. Undoubtedly this was a certain day when the junkyard was closed to the public, otherwise the gate would be open and there was sure to be a ton of people looking to either dispose of their unwanted items or salvage something. Thankfully there was no one around since the yard itself was still in a more isolated area than the local town was, more than likely to be more of a convenience to any residents.
"Maybe you SHOULD see a doctor about those nosebleeds," Nyx commented with a concerned look, somewhat sceptical of their destination herself.
G merely rolled his eyes at that.
"Oh would you just come on!" he stated, giving the gate a good kick with his action-style boot.
Luckily the chain being used to lock the gate was incredibly rusty, no doubt due to lack of proper care, thus G was able to break it with ease and swing the gate wide open. Before long, Nyx, Edward and Aria were following G amongst the vast piles of junk that were piled up like the walls of a maze, after about half hour of searching, G felt like his nose was going completely frantic, meaning that they were extremely close now.
"Any idea what we're looking for exactly?" Nyx asked curiously, not really understanding what G could be picking up in here.
"Not really," G admitted. "Though it does smell… metallic."
Hearing this, Aria rolled her eyes with a slight growl.
"Oh yeah, cause that's really distinctive amongst an assortment of scrap metal piles," She snapped sarcastically, causing both Edward and Nyx to glare at her/
"Oh would you cut it out with the snide comments already!" Nyx scolded, flapping her wings and hovering in front of Aria's face.
Suddenly, before another word can be said, both girls heard the excited call of the Living Genre ahead of them.
"Holy Crap!" he cried, grabbing everyone's attention, following him around the corner of yest another pile of junk, they then saw what it was that cause G to scream with awe.
"A limo?" Aria queried, looking at the find with a raised eyebrow.
"Not just any limo," G replied, taking a few steps towards the vehicle. "This is Scanty and Kneesocks' limo!"
The others may not have known it but G's statement was 100% accurate, for this was indeed the vehicle that belonged to the two to Demon Sisters. It was a long, bulky machine, that looked like a cross between a standard limo and an all-terrain Jeep, with its deep purple paintjob and red-tinted windows, this car was one that G recognised almost instantly.
"Wait," Nyx gasped, trying to absorb what she had just heard. "It belongs to those Demon Sisters you mentioned!?"
"Who?" Aria asked, having no clue as to who the filly was talking about.
"One of them was the green-haired one with the red-skin," Nyx explained, thus reminding Aria of one of the villains that attacked the group in Middle-Earth. "But why is their vehicle here? I thought you said it would take at least two more days for the villains to track us."
Though this fear was completely understandable, G remained completely calm, in that at this point he was looking at the limo whilst scratching his chin with thought.
"I don't think the Demon Sisters even know it's here," he finally said, much to everyone's confusion.
"What do you mean?" Edward asked, confused as to what G meant.
Knowing that this would most likely go over many heads, G tried his best to simply his explanation as best he could.
"Well I don't know for certain," he said. "But I think that this limo was sucked up by the same crack that pulled Scanty and Kneesocks into my realm, but instead of being taken with them, the crack split off into another realm and the limo was dumped here. And judging from the state this thing is in, that theory looks to be accurate."
As expected, each and every one of the trio was instantly confused, though judging from the amount of grime that had built up all over the limo's paintjob, they saw that G in fact had an interesting point, judging from Scanty's appearance alone everyone could tell that she was a lady of class and if she WERE here then she and her sister would have never have let their own property fall into such a state of uncleanliness.
"But I thought those cracks were a one-way trip." Nyx pointed out, scratching her head with thought.
Once again, G tried his best to simplify his explanation to help the others understand.
"Not necessarily," he replied. "If you recall when we jumped from Middle-Earth to here there was a flash of blue light, what you don't know is that the light is actually part of another realm altogether, basically the nothingness in between each one, a bit like the cement in between the paving stones if you will. We just never see it that way because we are literally moving too fast for us to really notice, I'm thinking that when this particular crack opened the limo and the sisters separated from each other and each followed a different path, a bit like two vehicles traveling down each side of a fork in the road."
This explanation may have been slightly more complicated that G wanted it to be but regardless the others managed to understand enough of it. Needless to say, Nyx's curious side gave in and she couldn't help but smile with delight.
"Amazing," she commented, walking up to the limo and giving one of the wheels a poke with her hoof.
Even Aria seemed to be interested in what G had just explained to her, though for a different reason all together.
"Guess me and my sisters should really count ourselves lucky then," she said, contemplating of what might have been if G's explanation was indeed as accurate as he believed.
Of course G picked up on Aria's concern in an instant and couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh.
"Yeah, I could only imagine how many people were separated from each other if this turns out to be true," he said, placing a hand on the limo.
Even Edward and Nyx couldn't help but look at each with a small frown with that particular thought entering their heads, all those poor souls, together when they left home but alone when they arrive somewhere else, obviously that would be enough to drive anyone insane.
"So now what?" Edward finally asked, curious as to what the next move was.
It was that that G's look of sorrow turned into a small smirk.
"Now, we hotwire this thing and take it back to the hotel," he declared. "Because I believe we just found our new ride."
At those words, everyone couldn't help but crack a small smile themselves.
"From a cramped up van to a limo?" Aria commented, her own smirk widening with the irony in her head. "Oh yeah, Adagio is gonna LOVE that."
"Alright then, help me out here," G replied, quickly going for the driver's door of the limo. "Maybe they left the keys somewhere."
On that instruction, everyone else then nodded and proceeded to follow G's example and start rummaging through the limo. Thankfully the doors were unlocked so getting inside was pretty easy, and as G had hoped, the keys were in fact still in the ignition so getting it going was going to be fairly easy. In fact, now that everyone was able to give it a good look over, they saw that aside from the grime that had been building up on the paintjob along with a few dents, the limo itself was in pretty good shape. The engine was practically untouched, and the red interior of the passenger's compartment was not only clean, but to put it simply, incredibly luxurious, the Demon sisters may have been evil but they certainly have good taste.
"Looks like this bad boy can get to the hotel with no problems," Nyx stated. "I may far from an expert, but it seems in pretty good shape to me."
"Okay then, Aria drives." G declared, tossing the keys to the confused Dazzling.
"What?" she exclaimed. "Why me?"
"Because you're the only one with hands who can actually reach the pedals," Nyx said bluntly, practically repeating Goggles' last statement while the group was escaping the villains in Middle-Earth.
Of course Aria rolled her eyes at that with her usual moody expression.
"Alright fine," she said in defeat. "But I have to warn you, I like to drive fast."
G couldn't help but chuckle at that.
"Good," he laughed. "Then it's a good thing that this thing can really take a…"
However G then once again stopped in mid-sentence as his nose began frantically sniffing the air, catching a new scent in his nostrils."
"You smell something else G?" Nyx asked curiously.
"I'm not sure," G replied. "It's faint, almost as if something was burying it."
Not only was G able to smell out the limo, but now a new smell mere minutes after finding the first one? This was certainly turning out to be an interesting day. Though this smell seemed to be somewhat different than the last one, granted it was faint but G still wouldn't be picking it up if it wasn't so close, as he stated it was as if something else was masking the smell. However that didn't falter G's determination to find whatever it is for a single second, in fact now that the smell was within range he was basically going nuts, putting his nose to the ground like a bloodhound trying to track down a fugitive. Finally after a few minutes of mindless sniffing, G's nose finally arrived at a certain pile of scrap metal a few yards away from the limo, after that he began carefully pulling pieces away bit by bit like a Jenga Tower, finally he found what he was looking for, though it certainly wasn't what he had expected. What G found was nothing more than an old leather-bound trunk sticking out of the junk pile like splinter, the leather itself was a disgusting black, while bits of the lacing had come undone from age, if anything this trunk looked older than the Bodega Bay Inn did.
"Hey give me a hand with this!" G called out to the others.
Not understanding as to why, but also finding no argument against it either, the other's then followed G's instructions and helped him pull the trunk out of the pile of scrap, of course with Edward's hands, all he could do was provide emotional support. Once the trunk was finally free of the junk holding it down, everyone could see it in all of it's disgusting glory, it was about 4 feet in length and about two feet in depth, and had many scratches and stains all over it, as it hadn't been taken care of in years.
"What do you think's inside?" Nyx asked, curious as to what G had discovered.
"Only one way to find out," G replied, staring down at the trunk with a determined gaze. "Edward?"
Knowing what G was implying instantly, Edward nodded with understanding and poked one of his bladed fingers into the trunk's lock, after a bit of fiddling about, he then finally managed to pry the trunk open. If the trunk itself had been shocking enough, then the object inside was completely astounding.
"Oh…" Edward gasped.
"…My…" Aria added, her jaw dropping.
"…Stars!" Nyx blurted out, finishing the sentence.
G on the other hand, only allowed his jaw to drop upon seeing what was inside the trunk, although if he could find his voice at the time, I'm sure he would say "How the plot thickens".
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Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anyone, a certain bony creature was stomping about in the woods like a Sasquatch, the only other creature even close to him was a deer that he was eyeing for a hunt. With one quick pounce and a snap of the poor creature's neck, the wolf mutant looked down at his dinner with a fierce glare, completely disgusted with the fact that he was now forced to kill his dinner like a wild animal. After losing G's scent when he was thrown over the cliff, Rahzar's first instinct was to go back to the spot where it happened, however all that he found was an abandoned scrap heap and a terrible hunger in his gut. He may have been human at one point, but given that it was an isolated area, the only other signs of life he found were livestock, thus forcing him to commit such atrocities just to stay alive. However while he may no longer have communication with the other villains, nor any idea as to where G was, but his determination and fury were beyond comprehension at this point, the turtles he used to fight in his home realm were one thing, but never before had he been so humiliated by one creature.
"Where are you?" he growled, his gaze then looking down at his kill with a fierce hunger.
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Author's Notes:
The Character Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke / :iconPenstrokepony:
The Character Laura belongs to :icontwokinds:
The Characters Chi and Mimi belong to :iconbleedman:
The Character Ruby Rose belongs to Rooster Teeth
