Chapter 22: Maglev Mayhem
Author's Note: Hello, dear readers, and welcome back to the next chapter of Kind At Heart! This was one of my favorite ones to write so far, and you'll find out why soon. But first, I need to respond to your lovely reviews. :)
Guest #1, I'll definitely consider including the Zombie Chews from Bad Nuts: the Anniversary. Thanks for the idea!
XXCandyLoverXX, I'm happy you loved the extra action that I added with Tyler and Kitsune! As you know, in the original, Tyler got no dialogue in that chapter, so I wanted to add more variety. I also enjoyed expanding on Chris' attitude from the original, since it seemed last-minute to me in the original, so I appreciate that you pointed that out. Like you mentioned, the Chipmunk Chews was another favorite of mine. For newer readers, in the original, it was just a "machine" with no description, so I made it shaped like an orange to reference them being orange flavored, and the Chipmunk icon above the hole was a reference to their namesake. As for the maglev's destination, you'll find out in this chapter!
Gage the Hedgehog, glad you liked it!
Matt, I'm glad you liked the Zebra Zippers! I never realized the pretty cool secondary use they could have if they were in the real world, so thanks for pointing that out! As I said to XXCandyLoverXX, you'll find out the maglev's destination in this chapter. I'm glad you liked the extra action and the Chipmunk Chews machine, and I hope that you'll enjoy this chapter as well.
emeraldphan, yup, that was a new side to Chris! As you remember, this was shown a bit in the pre-tour scenes, but now that the tour has finally started, I can finally go all out! Tyler and Kitsune certainly stopped pranking (for now, at least), which is a good thing for the group for sure, but not so much for you all, huh? You see, in the original story (and most other Second Generation stories), the children are indeed eliminated one after the other. I wanted to change that up to give the beginning characters more screen time, so I'm glad you like that idea. The grandparents' pictures, along with Wilbur Wonka, was a small touch added by me, since these are Joe's ideas, so I'm glad you liked that as well.
Guest #2 (and 3), I'm glad you like Mindy! I loved including Drew Hyde's quote, so I'm happy you enjoyed that as well. My intention was indeed to make Mindy more boastful, as I felt that she was too soft and not really bratty in the original story. Funny thing is, I imagined the Joe's voice in Willy with that reaction as well! XD Now, on with the story!
The door automatically slid out of the way, revealing a room that resembled a subway station. There was a long, narrow platform, and long benches were seen on the side the group was on. Sitting on them were Oompa-Loompas wearing glasses and reading various newspapers. They could see a Ticket booth on one wall, and there was a female Oompa-Loompa inside of it. Also, Oompa-Loompa children were walking around in this room as well, holding their parent's hands as they waited for the maglev to arrive.
"The maglev will be arriving shortly," a feminine voice announced on a PA system. With that, many of the Oompa-Loompas stood up, whether by themselves or with their children. A few minutes later, a streamlined, white maglev train pulled up inside the station. In front of the maglev, there was a dark, narrow tunnel that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Everyone in the group stared in awe at this spectacular sight- everyone, that is, except Daniel Sparkman.
"Don't you already have enough crazy things inside this factory of yours?" he asked. "First a tank, now a maglev. This is getting to be quite ridiculous."
"Well, I'd normally accuse you of mumbling, but I must say that our factory wouldn't be quite as unique without them, little boy," Willy replied with a smile. "This method of transportation is necessary for us to get where we're going next. We're heading to one of the most top-secret areas of the factory. This maglev is actually the only way to get there."
"Get where?" Jenna asked, gripping Chris' hand tightly.
"The room that we're heading to next on the tour manufactures something so valuable that, when released, people will pay millions to try to get their hands on it," Charlie answered with a smile. "That's why, when Mr. Wonka constructed this room before the first tour, it was placed very far from the main area of the factory- fifty miles, in fact. We're so serious about protecting this recipe that it's not even listed on any of the buttons of our Great Glass Elevator. All aboard, everyone!"
"Fifty miles?!" Chris gasped. "Did I really hear you correctly?"
"You sure did, Chris," Charlie responded. "It's for security reasons. Now, let's climb aboard."
The doors of the maglev opened, and some of the Oompa-Loompas entered inside the back of it, holding their children's hands as they did so. The group entered through the middle door of the maglev, and they found themselves in a narrow aisle with rows of leather seats on both sides of it. On the outer seats, there were small, round windows, like the ones on aeroplanes.
"Pick a seat, any seat," Charlie said to the remaining tour members, and they scrambled to find their seats. Not surprisingly, Chris sat beside Jenna. Daniel sat down by himself, but Mindy managed to locate him and sit next to the tech geek. Yuna sat alone by herself, and the rest of the adults sat up front in one large group. Willy and Charlie headed towards the back of the maglev section that the lot of them were in. There was a white bench sitting against the wall to the left of a door leading to the next section of the maglev, along with a podium with a microphone in the center-front of it. Tyler and Kitsune were about to sit next to each other, but Charlie Bucket wasn't having any of it.
"Nope, you two are sitting right next to us," Charlie Bucket said, clearing his throat. "Tyler, you are sitting next to me. Kitsune, you are sitting next to Willy. I absolutely cannot have you sitting next to each other under any circumstances."
Groaning in disappointment, Tyler and Kitsune did as they were told. Mr. Wonka tapped the top of the microphone to test it, and spoke, "We are now seated and ready to go! Onward!"
Immediately after he said this, the maglev began to slowly travel towards the tunnel, and a feminine voice was heard from a speaker located near the ceiling of the train.
"Welcome aboard!" the voice said cheerfully. Our next stop will be the Therapeutic Corridor. We'll be arriving in just seven minutes, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride." A strange whirring noise was heard as the train began to slowly make its way out of the station, picking up speed every second.
"Will this thing go fast?" Tyler asked nervously, beginning to sweat. "I'm scared of these kinds of rides."
"But of course," Charlie answered calmly. 'In order to arrive at our destination quicker, we'll be reaching speeds of up to 650 miles per hour for part of the journey."
"No no no no no!" Tyler exclaimed. "I didn't sign up for this! Let me off, let me off, let me off!"
"Well it's too late for that now, isn't it little boy?" Mr. Wonka said as the maglev began travelling faster and faster.
"For someone who plays cruel pranks like no one's business," Mindy whispered to Daniel, "he sure seems to be a wimp."
"I heard that!" Tyler yelled angrily.
"The nerve of that kid," Jenna whispered to Chris. "Tyler's very immature, in my opinion. He must change his ways sooner or later. And his mother only encourages his habits."
"Jenna," Chris said, tapping her on the shoulder. "Look at how fast we're going!" He pointed up to a display that hung down from the ceiling, The numbers on it resembled the ones seen on a portable calculator, and it was showing the maglev's current speed and progress through the tunnel. It flashed so fast that the two of them couldn't see the numbers until they stopped for short intervals: 120 mph, 130 mph, 140 mph.
"Wow, this sure is fast," Daniel remarked. "It looks like we're gaining ten miles per hour each second. But I hardly see what the point of those windows is, however, if all I'm seeing is blackness."
"The windows are there so that the train looks more presentable while it's in the station," Mr. Wonka explained. "Remember, we don't want a single ounce of ugliness in our factory. Not like Slugworth's, anyway."
"His is the worst of them all," Charlie added. "Believe me, my Grandpa Joe once visited that place before the original tour, and he showed me pictures of what he saw. To say the least, it looked absolutely disgusting."
He looked around the train, then saw Yuna Sayuki. She was still sitting by herself, and her head was down.
"You watch those two," Charlie whispered to Mr. Wonka. "I'll go check up on Yuna. Something's off."
"Got it," Mr. Wonka responded, glaring at Tyler and his mother with a firm look in his eyes.
Charlie got up from the bench, then sat down next to Yuna and placed a hand on one of her shoulders.
"What's wrong, Yuna?" Charlie asked curiously.
"Nothing," Yuna murmured, her head still down.
"You can tell me," Charlie said calmly. "I know something's up between you and your mother."
Yuna sighed, then stared straight into Charlie's eyes.
"Fine," Yuna responded. "I hate living with my parents. They never support me with what I like to do, they try to control every move that I make, and they're always wrapped up in their own silly desires that they never make time for me."
"Go on," Charlie smiled.
"And Antonio," Yuna said sadly, "I like him. He seems like a good person, despite his flaws, and I'm just sad that I never got to spend time with him before he left the tour."
"It'll be all right, Yuna," Charlie smiled. "Antonio will be just fine, I promise you. You may even get a chance to see him at the end of the tour, and get to talk to him then."
"Really?" Yuna said, looking up at Charlie.
"Of course," Charlie said reassuringly. "We run a chocolate factory you know, not a butcher's shop."
This remark caused Yuna to giggle slightly.
"And about your mother," Charlie continued, "even though I didn't grow up in your kind of lifestyle myself, I know how you feel. Mr. Wonka's lifestyle was similar. His father, who was a dentist, hated candy, and so, Willy ran away from his home shortly after he ate his first piece of chocolate. When he came back, his father, along with his house, was nowhere to be seen."
"What happened next?" Yuna Sayuki asked curiously.
"For years, nothing," Charlie responded. "Nothing was known about the whereabouts of 'ol Wilbur, and Willy grew up to be the chocolatier you know. Before I became his heir, I helped Willy to reconcile with him, and I know that you can do the same with your mother."
"I-i'm not so sure," Yuna shook. "I think my mother hates me."
Before Charlie could say anything, Willy cleared his throat, and Charlie got up to go back by Tyler and Kitsune.
"Good luck," Charlie smiled, and Yuna waved shyly back.
"All right, we've reached our top speed," Mr. Wonka announced as Charlie took his seat next to his mentor. Chris and Jenna looked up at the display, and sure enough, it read 650 mph. "I seriously hope that nobody's using the other train at this moment."
"What other train?" Tyler cried, sweat falling down his face. "Somebody get me off this crazy thing!"
"The one that goes the opposite way on the same track as this one," Mr. Wonka replied with a sinister-looking grin.
"What?!" Chris' father exclaimed as his face began to turn as white as chalk. "Are you saying we might have a collision?"
"Well, we've always been lucky so far," Charlie replied. "I don't know how we managed it, though."
"No!" Tyler exclaimed, burying his face in Charlie's shoulders. "I can't take this anymore!"
"I hope he's only joking," Daniel's father whispered to Mindy. "Colliding with another object at six-hundred fifty miles per hour would spell instant death for us all."
Daniel looked behind himself, and Tyler Smith was whimpering with fear. As soon as he saw that Daniel was looking at him, he tried to put on his bravest face possible, but failed.
"All right, we're nearing our destination," Mr. Wonka said a few minutes later, and the maglev began to decelerate smoothly but steadily.
"What shall we expect to see?" Yuna asked, turning to look at Charlie.
"Oh, just you wait," he replied with a smile. "You're going to love what we'll show you next."
A few minutes later, the maglev pulled into a nearly identical station compared to the one that the group first boarded. The doors of the train opened, and the Oompa-Loompas, along with the tour group, disembarked from it. The group reunited, and Tyler immediately went next to his mother. There was a single door leading out of this room, and there was an Oompa-Loompa standing in front of it. The worker was wearing a dark blue police uniform with a badge on his hat, along with a black belt. He was holding a flashlight in one hand, along with a brown baton in the other.
"The Therapeutic Corridor is one of the most unique corridors in the entire factory," Mr. Wonka explained. "It's also one of the most secure, due to a certain room that it contains. Its security is second only to the Information Technology Corridor, so please consider it a privilege that we're doing so much as to let you inside."
"Will we visit that corridor later?" Daniel asked excitedly.
"Maybe later, little boy," Mr. Wonka responded. "Please be patient."
The group walked up to the Oompa-Loompa guard, and he stared at the group with a straight face, starting with Mr. Wonka and Charlie.
"You two," he said firmly, staring at Tyler and Kitsune. "We've heard a lot about your shenanigans. You better not do anything foolish in here, or else."
"Or else what, midget man?" Tyler snarked.
"Or else I don't think getting attacked by our Exploding Candy Rifles and getting escorted off the premises would feel that satisfying," he said firmly.
A few seconds later, the guard moved to the right, allowing the group to pass. The group noticed that they were in another corridor, but this one was black like the other ones in the factory, and not pink like Grandpa Joe Way.
"Here we are," Charlie announced. "The Therapeutic Corridor!"
With the group following behind Mr. Wonka and Charlie, who were sprinting down the corridor, they were panting and begging for them to slow down.
"Please!" begged Mrs. Sayuki. "Slow down!"
"Slow down?" Charlie called back. "We don't have time for dawdling! We'll never get anywhere at this rate if we do such a thing!"
"Get where?" Mrs. Sayuki panted.
"Just you wait and see!" Mr. Wonka called out. "Please don't be impatient!"
As they were running down the corridor, Chris and Jenna had just enough time to read the labels on some of the doors. "SAUNAS", "PEDICURES", "MANICURES", and "EXFOLIATION ROOM" were what four of them said.
"As the name implies, this corridor is where the Oompa-Loompas get time to relax," Charlie explained. "There's also the Recreation Corridor, which we'll visit later on in the tour."
"HOT CHOCOLATE BATH," was what another door read.
"Wait!" Mr. Wonka said, stopping in front of the Hot Chocolate Bath room. "Let's look in here, everyone."
The group peeked through the door of the Hot Chocolate Bath room, and they saw nothing through the window, due to it being fogged up. Mr. Wonka turned the vault-like handle to the room, and it opened with ease.
Walking inside the room, they saw an amazing sight. A large pool filled completely with liquid chocolate took up the center of the room, with folding chairs surrounding it. There were stairs on the left and right sides of the deck, and they led up to a higher level with beautiful chocolate waterfalls, similar to the Chocolate Room, but on a much smaller scale. These waterfalls caused mist to spread throughout the room, making it incredibly humid.
"The Oompa-Loompas love to relax here after a long day of work," Charlie explained. "It's one of their favorite places, in fact, right after the soda bath close by our Coconut Ice Castle, which we'll also visit later on in the tour. After all, we couldn't possibly have them work all day. They have thoughts and feelings just like we do."
"You hit the nail right on the head, my boy!" Mr. Wonka smiled. "Now, onward to the next room!"
As the group walked out of the Hot Chocolate Bath room, Mr. Wonka closed the door behind them and went back out into the corridor. The next door that they arrived at, just a few paces away, said, "COOL LEMONADE BATH."
"I'm guessing this is the opposite of the Hot Chocolate Bath room," Jenna remarked as she looked up at the label on the door, which was a swirl of blue and yellow.
"Well you'll just have to find out, will ya?" Mr. Wonka giggled as he opened the door to the Cool Lemonade Bath room and everyone walked inside.
The Cool Lemonade Bath room had a similar layout to the Hot Chocolate Bath room. A large pool of light-yellow lemonade sat in the center of the room, and there were folding chairs as well. On the sides of the pool, stairs led up to yet another waterfall area which crashed down, causing the lemonade to become frothy with tons of bubbles. From the ceiling, snowflakes fell down and landed into the pool, and it felt exactly like a winter's day. This room was also extremely cold, yet there was a thermometer by the wall.
"This is another favorite of the Oompa-Loompas," Mr. Wonka explained. "The reason there is a thermometer in this room is to control the temperature. Sometimes, they prefer a hot room with the cold lemonade, as they really enjoy the contrast. The reason both rooms are the temperature they are right now is to control the temperature of their respective liquids. After all, it wouldn't be a Hot Chocolate Bath with cold chocolate, nor a Cool Lemonade Bath with warm lemonade. The snowflakes here are made of coconut, and they help with the atmosphere of this room. Pretty neat, huh?"
With that, everyone took one last look at the Cool Lemonade Bath room as Mr. Wonka closed the door behind them, and they continued their trek down the Therapeutic Corridor.
"CHANGING ROOMS" was another door that Chris and Jenna saw as they rushed on to try to keep up with Mr. Wonka and Charlie.
"Wait, let's stop here!" Charlie announced suddenly as everyone crashed into each other from the running.
"The changing rooms?" Chris said, confused.
"No, not that!" Charlie laughed. "This door over here!"
Everyone looked at the door that Charlie was referring to, and they saw a label that said, "WONKA-VITE AND VITA WONK."
Author's Note: Wow, what a chapter! I'm certain that older readers might recognize some things referenced in this chapter. Let me explain for the newer ones.
As I stated in the previous chapter, the maglev was previously in "Next in Line." Like XXCandyLoverXX said, it took the group to the Information Technology Corridor, but I will not say any more than that for spoilers.
Also, the Saunas, Pedicures, Manicures, Exfoliation Room, Hot Chocolate Bath, Cool Lemonade Bath, and Changing Rooms previously appeared in a story known as "Where All the Bad Nuts Go." This is the first main appearance of the Hot Chocolate and Cool Lemonade Baths where they actually went inside the rooms, so I hope that you enjoyed it. Thank mattTheWriter072 (Matt) for letting me use whichever rooms I please from his story to bring awareness to it. You can expect others to appear as time goes on, so stay tuned for that!
There's also one minor detail some people might have noticed compared to the original story, and that is, I removed the hyphen from "Vita Wonk." In the original, it had a hyphen, but Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator did not have that, so I removed it to be more accurate to the source material.
Overall, what did you think about this chapter? What do you think could happen next? Feel free to review and leave your thoughts, and stay tuned for the next chapter, everyone!
Until then,
Gabe S. :)