Chapter 18: The Exploding Candy Tower

Author's Note: Good afternoon, dear readers! When we last left our tour group, Tyler and Kitsune had tossed a ticking time bomb into the main cannon of the tank they were riding, ready to blow the group to bits! Will they succeed pulling the ultimate prank? Will the tour continue? You'll find out...right after I respond to your reviews!

emeraldphan, I'm glad you liked the tank! I had tons of fun creating the ride-like elements in it, especially the character interactions as they were shooting the soldiers. As for Tyler, he certainly is pretty crazy, isn't he? You'll find out the answer to the cliffhanger really soon!

Matt, it's glad to know I captured the atmosphere of what the tank ride would've been! As for what's up with Tyler and Kitsune, you'll get the answer soon!

Guest #1, let's hope so as well, or I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be leaving the best impressions on Charlie and Mr. Wonka, would they?

AnEndlessSceptic, hm, that's an interesting theory...

XXCandyLoverXX, I'm glad you're liking my rewrite so far! I'm having a lot of fun with it! Speaking of interactions, in my opinion, this chapter has some of the best dialogue in the story for Willy and Charlie specifically, so I hope you'll enjoy this one! Thanks for the compliments!

Guest #2, I laughed so hard when I saw your review! I don't know how that slipped past me, but it's been fixed! XD

spinACHshARK, hmm, pretty interesting food list you got there. I'll see what I can do.

(Credits: I feel like I must give credit to Turrislucidus' The Anniversary/The Process for giving me a spark of inspiration during the development of this chapter.)

Now, on with the story!

"Hurry up!" Chris exclaimed, guiding everyone to the hatch. "Let's go!"

Everyone climbed up the seats and, one by one, began to exit the tank. In her hurry, Mrs. Sayuki knocked down her daughter, and even refused to help her up.

"Hey!" Yuna cried. "What was that for?!"

"Every man and woman for themselves!" Mrs. Sayuki exclaimed, looking back at her daughter and climbing out of the hatch without a second thought.

"Here," Jenna smiled, holding out her hand to help her up.

"Thanks!" Yuna bowed as the three of them ran to the exit then climbed out of the tank. Mindy was next, and she looked down into the tank. Daniel was the only one left, as Mr. Wonka and Charlie had just finished exiting the control room and were running to the exit with the others.

"Daniel!" Mindy called out. "Here!"

Daniel looked up and climbed on one of the seats.

"Why are you helping me?" he asked. "I thought we were rivals!"

"We are," Mindy smiled, "but where's the competition if you're not even alive?"

Daniel did one of his rare smiles, then grabbed Mindy's hand. He could've sworn that as he was doing so, her cheeks were red, and she had a slight smile on her face.

Everyone was out of the tank by now, and rushing towards the next area while at the same time trying to avoid the soldier cutouts, who were still shooting Gobstoppers. Suddenly, Chris stopped, and everyone looked back at him.

"Hurry, Chris!" Jenna called out.

"Wait!" Chris shouted. "Shouldn't the tank have exploded by now?"

Right after Chris said this, enormous amounts of laughter were heard coming from behind a shrub. The boy walked by it, and pulled out none other than Tyler Smith and Kitsune.

"Hahaha!" Tyler Smith laughed. "You actually fell for that!"

"That was our best prank yet!" laughed Kitsune. "We should try that again!"

"Not on my watch!" Chris shouted, his legs in front of each other and his fists clenched. "If you even try-!"

As soon as Chris was about to lunge, he felt someone grab his arm. It was Jenna, and the rest of the group was looking at him.

"You could've killed us!" Daniel Sparkman shouted, stomping up to Tyler.

"You really thought that was a real bomb?!" Tyler laughed, his face covered with tears. "That was a clever fake, and you all fell for it!"

"That wasn't funny!" Daniel yelled. "You had us scared to death!"

"Of course we did!" Kitsune laughed. "Why else were we laughing?!"

"You still could've killed us with that stupid smoke bomb of yours!" Daniel retorted, and Charlie stomped up to the duo in anger.

"That's it!" Charlie exclaimed, taking everyone by surprise. "You two have done more than enough in holding back the tour! Tyler and Kitsune, you'll be sitting with me and Mr. Wonka for the rest of the ride, therefore losing the game. As for everyone else, please get back in the passenger seats of the tank."

No words were spoken as everyone followed Charlie's instructions. Tyler and Kitsune got into the control room with Charlie and Mr. Wonka, pouting in anger, while the rest of the children and parents got back into the passenger seat of the tank and gripped their joysticks eagerly.

"That Tyler is so sadistic it's crazy," Daniel whispered. "He's a psychopath."

"I agree," Mindy responded. "And his mother only encourages his habits."

"Are you okay, Yuna?" Jenna asked Yuna once she got back into her seat.

"I'm alright," she responded. "No thanks to Mother."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, dear!" Mrs. Sayuki smiled, patting her daughter's shoulders. "I was in such a rush to get out that I completely forgot about you! It was an accident!"

Yuna glared at her mother and said nothing as the scoreboards turned back on, the guns were activated, and the tank began moving once again.

The next area they visited was completely white, and resembled the interior of buildings in sci-fi novels. There were robots everywhere, but they were malfunctioning and run down as a bunch of soldiers that resembled robots began shooting lasers at them.

"Take that!" Daniel laughed. "And that! And that!"

They turned left, and went up a steep, white ramp. Everyone tried to shoot, but they realized that they couldn't.

"We are approaching the end of the game," Charlie announced, "which is why your cannons seemingly aren't functioning properly. Be prepared to exit as we approach the Exploding Candy Tower!"

"Exploding Candy...Tower?" Antonio questioned, eager for more information.

The tank stopped in a dark blue room with a giant television hanging from the ceiling. It was showing the rankings of all the parents and children in order, from first to last. Antonio just barely managed to get first place with three-hundred points, while Mindy and Daniel tied for second, with two hundred and fifty points each. Despite coming in second, Mindy was not having any of it. As soon as everyone exited through the hatch, she stomped towards Antonio, breathing heavily as she did so.

"Antonio!" she yelled. "How dare you!"

Mindy got so mad that she began to shove Antonio around, causing the two to get into a fight.

"What's going on here?" Mr. Wonka asked as he and Charlie, along with Tyler and Kitsune, approached the duo.

"I can't believe Antonio beat me!" Mindy complained. "I'm supposed to be number one, not him!"

"Well, that's how it works sometimes," Mr. Wonka frowned, crossing his arms. "You're just gonna have to put up with it. Antonio, since you won, you get to choose your own variety of candy you want in your lifetime supply, similar to Daniel with the Solar Swudge."

"Do you have any candy parachutes?" Antonio Ricci asked curiously.

"No," Mr. Wonka responded, "but we do have candy balloons instead. Blow them up to enormous sizes until they pop, haha!"

"I'll try them," Antonio Ricci responded, "but do you think you could consider my suggestion? The skydiving world would be much better with your candy than without it."

"We'll see what we can do," Mr. Wonka answered. "Thanks for that."

Charlie turned to Kitsune and Tyler.

"As for you two," Charlie frowned, crossing his arms as well, "you two are gonna have to promise me that you'll never do anything like that again. Otherwise, we're going to have to consider removing you from the tour. Understood?"

"We promise," Tyler said in a squeaky voice, blinking repeatedly and showing large eyes.

"Yeah, we totally promise," Kitsune said, doing the same thing as her son.

"Alright," Charlie responded. "We'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Mr. Wonka," Antonio asked, walking up to the chocolatier. "Who were those small people that we saw during the tank ride?"

"They're our workers," Mr. Wonka responded, "and you'll find out more about them later."

"Mr. Wonka?" Chris asked Mr. Wonka, walking up to him as he spoke.

"Yes, Chris?" Mr. Wonka asked him.

"I'm curious about something," he responded. "What does the tank use as fuel?"

"Oh, I'm glad you asked!" Mr. Wonka smiled. "It runs on ginger ale, ginger pop, ginger beer, beer bubbles, bubble-ade, bubble cola, double cola, double bubble burp-a-cola, and all that crazy carbonated stuff that tickles your nose."

"It used to run on molasses," Charlie added, "but the vapors sent several Oompa-Loompas to the factory infirmary. You see, when used as an energy source, molasses has the tendency to become a substance which is terribly, horribly intoxicating to Oompa-Loompas in these quantities. I can't imagine it has that much better of an effect on humans, though."

A few seconds passed, and Charlie cleared his throat. Everyone turned to look at him.

"Anyways," he announced, "let us go to the next room during the tour- the Exploding Candy Tower!"

As everyone looked back at the tank one last time, they exited the area that they were in and were immediately left awestruck by what was in front of them. There was a gigantic, fifty-story tall tower in the very center of the room, and on the ceiling there were what looked like metal guide rails spread throughout. On the very top of this tower, tons of Mr. Wonka's workers were operating large guns, and loading striped balls into them and firing them at huge ringed targets at the other end of it all. Some of the balls exploded in bright lights, creating a beautiful fireworks show.

"This room is the most stunning one yet," Jenna gasped, her mouth opening as she was holding Chris' hand in awe.

"Thank you," Charlie smiled, looking at Chris and Jenna. "We're very proud of this one. As I'm sure you remember, we mentioned that the main cannon of the tank that we rode on earlier used Gobstoppers and Exploding Candies. This room is where we test the Exploding Candies out. The candies are manufactured in a separate room right next to this one." He pointed to the right side of the tower, where a large tube connected both it and a large hole in the wall.

"What are those guide rails up there for?" Chris asked, pointing up near the ceiling.

"I'm glad you asked!" Mr. Wonka laughed, letting out a high-pitched giggle. "I thought none'a ya would notice! Those guide rails, my dear children, are used for a special contraption in the factory called the Great Glass Elevator! Ya see, whenever me and Charlie need to get around the factory quickly, we use that! It's completely made out of glass, and can go in any direction imaginable! How's that for a whimsical Wonka wonder, my dear Chris?"

"That's impossible," Daniel said with a bored look on his face. "Elevators only go up and down."

"Daniel," Mr. Sparkman said, walking up to his son, "son. Please give the tour a chance. I think you'll begin to realize that as it continues on, nothing is impossible."

"Whatever you say, Dad," Daniel murmured, turning away from his father and walking in his own direction.

"That sounds amazing!" Jenna exclaimed. "Will we be able to ride it today?"

"Well," Mr. Wonka responded, stroking his chin, "we do have plans for it, so it's highly likely. We also have the Great Glass Cargo Elevator, which is used for carrying larger loads around that the normal Elevator can't handle. It was constructed many years ago, when Charlie was a teenager, and the idea came to me as a result of a feud I had with an egg-shaped man as a part of a race we were having together. He was very stubborn, but at least something good came out of it."

A few minutes later, Charlie and Mr. Wonka guided the tour group to the middle of the tower, where a cage-like elevator awaited them, like the ones found in mines. Mr. Wonka pressed a button with a gloved hand, and a dinging sound was heard. In a matter of seconds, the door opened, and everybody entered inside. As they went higher and higher still, Chris and Jenna were in awe about the view. The Exploding Candy Tower was a dark place, but the myriad of colorful fireworks really helped brighten it up and give it life. Before they knew it, the elevator dinged again, and the door opened, and they all stepped out, watching the action for themselves. Mr. Wonka walked over by one of the large guns and picked up one of the candies to show the group. It was white, but it had red stripes, similar to peppermint, but in a spherical form.

"This little sucker is my special Exploding Candy!" Mr. Wonka smiled proudly. "These things really do pack a punch, haha! Fire 'em off whenever ya like, but be warned- if you're hit by one, the impact does not feel good in the slightest."

"Can you eat them?" Yuna asked.

"My Exploding Candies are for shooting," Mr. Wonka replied, "not for eating. The only candy thing about them is the coating."

"Why would you make candy for shooting, and not for eating?" Jenna asked. "I'm just curious."

"Well you see," Mr. Wonka answered, "it all started one day when I had a bad day of candy making. I wanted something to take my anger out on, but I just didn't know what! Then, I thought- what do people take their anger out on? Targets, that's what! And so, the idea of Exploding Candy was born!"

Mr. Wonka chuckled, looking back and forth between Chris and Jenna, then back at the Exploding Candy, throwing it up in the air once, catching it, then placing it back by the gun. "Now, does anybody have any other questions?"

Everyone stood still, and Chris was about to open his mouth to ask something, until he was interrupted by a shout at the far end of the Exploding Candy Tower.

Author's Note: Wow, that's a new one! The Exploding Candy Room?! What could have possibly been the shout that was heard coming from the other end of the Tower? Be sure to stay tuned, because you'll find out in Chapter 19, everyone!

I feel like I must point out that the name "Exploding Candy Tower" has no relations to MysteriousMaker1185's version in A Box of Chocolates. The only similarity is the name, as we both used the same room as inspiration. Credit does go, however, to Discord user cybershell12 for coming up with the molasses idea/dialogue.

As usual, feel free to review and leave your thoughts, and stay tuned for the next chapter, everyone!

Until then,

Gabe S. :)