Realms: Turn Style

It had been roughly a month since the last realm opened and everyone was bored. After Ronnie and Will replaced their missing cars, Will decided to make a racing simulator so the drivers could race through the previous realms without risk.

Using footage provided by Connor, who was glad his footage was useful, and locking in a stock car frame with adjustable settings for each driver, they began competing in their spare time. So far, Aidan held the record for Storm and Metro, Connor held records in Swamp and Lava without using short paths, Ethan had the Water and Cavern records, and Ronnie had the Lava short route record. Marie had respectable times, but wasn't specialized enough to hold a record on any of the six realms, while Will and Luke didn't care for competing.

Aidan stared at the Wheel from the control center. There had to be another realm soon. There were still about 40 unused symbols on the Wheel of Power! Getting up, he took the stairs down and walked to his garage. As he opened the door, the realm alarm started! Shutting the door behind him and hearing an explosion from his left, he put a tally on the explosion board and got in his car.

Placing his Accelechargers in the holder, Kana activated and ran diagnostics. The innermost ring slammed to a stop, and a reverse S symbol lit up. Seeing this, he pulled up to his slingshot, ready to race.

The realm alarm had caused Will to flinch, moving his hand into a wire and detonating his now former creation. After taking off his goggles, he ran to his vehicle. Strapping on his helmet and firmly attaching his Hover module, Will pulled his ignition lever and shut his door. Putting his Accelecharger in a holder, he pulled up to his slingshot.

Ethan replaced his glasses with his helmet, putting his spectacles on his desk. Climbing into Beast and shutting his door, the engine roared as he pulled up to the slingshot. It was about time for another realm. Placing his Accelecharger into a holder, he steeled himself for the new realm.

Luke buckled himself in, replacing his cowboy hat with his helmet. As his engine shook, he pulled up to his slingshot, ready to race.

Connor was ready for a new realm. The online fans were getting a bit impatient with the wait, so Connor was more than ready to race again. Zipping up his jacket and closing his door, Connor adjusted his camera and pulled up to the slingshot. As the second ring slammed into place, an identical symbol lit up. This symbol had no indication of the realm, but the curvy symbol could mean turns. If that was the case, he was sure his drift car would win with ease.

Marie put on her visor and calmed herself. She knew she could win, she just had to be more mindful of the realm challenge. Pulling up to her slingshot, she took a deep breath and prepared for the challenge to come.

As Ronnie was rudely awakened from his slumber, he realized that it was the realm alarm. Getting into his car and placing his Accelecharger in a holder, he closed his door. Pulling up to the slingshot, the final ring spun around the Wheel. As it spun around again, it locked into place, and the realm opened. All the drivers accelerated, their slingshots amplifying their speed. All seven drivers vanished into the portal with a flash of light.

A light blue rift tore open above an orange track along a large rock wall, sending the septet of drivers onto the track. A light blue sky illuminated the environment, letting them see that this huge rock and the track were the only things around. At least, as far as they could see.

"Any ideas as to what this realm is?" Aidan asked over the radio.

"My best guess is a mountain realm, but I don't think that is it." Will replied.

The track turned hard with the rock face, and Connor drifted the outside line while Marie and Aidan turned tightly to the right. Luke and Ethan slowed down to take the sharp turn, while Ronnie and Will struggled their way through the hairpin track.

"I think I know the realm theme now." Connor said.

"Tight turns?" Marie asked.

"Clearly." Will said.

The track sharply swung back out to the left, before curling back in toward the right and tilting up, bringing the frontrunners up the rock face. The track continued to hug the wavy rock wall, forcing the frontrunner to pay close attention, and forcing the other four drivers to constantly slow down. This was clearly not their realm. As the track slowly ascended the rock face, a ledge filled with dead trees above could be made out.

"Are those birds up there?" Ethan asked.

"They look to be vultures, but they are much larger than what we know." Will explained.

"I bet my loaded gift card that those fucking birds will attack us." Ronnie sighed. The birds above spread out their wings, showing their massive twenty-foot wingspan. With a flap of their wings, they began to circle above the cars, prioritizing the frontrunners.

Aidan slammed his brakes, a huge pair of talons narrowly missing his car, before quickly accelerating to catch up to Connor and Marie. As Marie swerved to dodge an incoming vulture, Connor began to drift around the next turn, avoiding a vulture in the process.

Deciding that he had had enough of these birds, Aidan reached up and took his Metro realm Accelecharger from the holder, placing it into the port. As the port accepted the alien cartridge, his car began to glow a vibrant yellow, and a protective bubble formed around his car. As a giant vulture swooped down to attack, its talons bounced off the bubble, and the bird was sent back into the rocky wall.

As birds swooped down and the track curved wildly with the rocky wall, it became apparent to Marie that this was going to be much harder than the last realm, until she noticed that the birds stopped attacking. They had flown back to their trees.

"We're they just defending their territory?" Connor asked, confused.

"I think so. At least they are gone now." Aidan responded, removing his Accelecharger from the port and placing it back in the holder. His car lost the bubble, and the yellow glow vanished.

The track turned up and right, finally leaving the cliff face and going straight on the rocky plateau.

"Hey, I got a proposal for you two." Marie said.

"What might that be, sis?" Aidan asked.

"It's clear we all got enough skill for this realm, I don't think the other four could win, but how about this. From this point, no Accelechargers or Nitrox, the best driver wins." Marie said.

"I can agree to that. Aidan?" Connor said.

"Yea, let's do it!" Aidan agreed. The top of a vertical loop came into view over the edge of the plateau. "Well, you know what they say. What comes up, must come down!" Aidan shouted. The trio plummeted over the rocky edge before curling back up into a huge vertical loop, as big as the one in the Storm realm. The track was being held up by thick metal beams jutting out of the rugged brown stone wall.

Coming out of the loop, the track swung into a huge banked right turn, letting Marie and Aidan keep their speed, while Connor lightly drifted along the outside edge. The long turn spiraled once, then before completing the second loop, the bank inverted and the track swung to the left. As the bank was lost but the track continued turning widely left, Aidan and Marie lost some ground to Connor's expert drifting.

While the drivers in the back began to ascend the huge loop above the frontrunning trio, the track straightened, sloped down, then twisted hard to the left and banked. Connor faced his car to the inside, his tires leaving black marks and smoke along his path, as he perfectly cut the corner and claimed the inside line. Marie took the same line, but didn't drift. Using her lack of top speed, she cut the corner close and came out without losing much of her speed. Aidan hugged the outside line, maintaining speed at the cost of space, placing him at the rear of the trio.

The track flattened back out before curling to the right, then back to the left. As the orange track straightened back out, it curved into a harsh U-turn to the right, forcing Marie to take the turn early, costing Aidan speed, and even Connor couldn't avoid having to slow down for the razor-sharp turn. Seeing an identical turn ahead to the left, the drivers slowed down prematurely. Glancing at the track immediately below them, the track spiraled down in the same elliptical pattern.

As they descended, it became clear that they could not preserve much of any speed after the sharp left turns, forcing them to accelerate partially on the straights and brake into the turns to avoid falling into the abyss below them. After the third rotation, the track switched directions, sending them to the right instead while continuing the pattern but making the turns even tighter. As the track stopped banking for the turns, Connor was having trouble starting his drifts the farther down they got. Marie always gained speed coming out of the turns, boasting the highest acceleration. Her acceleration did not help her with the actual turns however, leading to the three being held in a strange stalemate.

Doing two full rotations to the right, the track switched back to the left, doing two more rotations down before curling in an S shape and continuing to descend to the right. Going down twice again, Connor thought he was going to lose all the rubber on his tires with the smoke he was leaving behind. As the track finally made a wide U-turn, the turn-based track finally calmed down, straightening out. Making another wide u-turn, the track straightened out, going under a large rock and giving Aidan a chance to let Mirror begin to catch up.

Reaching the other side of the rock arch, the track curled up and u-turned to the left, forcing Aidan to slow down again and giving Connor a clean drift, letting him look down and seeing the end of the track. The track flattened back out, letting Aidan begin to gain on the two frontrunners. The track curled to the left, doing another set of sharp U-turns before curving to the right. Coming out of the turn, the track moved into three tight descending loops, letting Aidan flex his speed in an attempt to catch up. Marie was leading on Connor, being slightly faster.

As the g-force of the loops pushed the drivers back into their seats, Marie spotted a glow to her right. Coming out of the final loop she glanced at the light blue glow, illuminating the rock wall, which was tinted orange from the sunset. It was the realm portal. It had the realm symbol in the center, bright Orange in color. As the track turned and banked to the left, Marie took the tightest line she could, spiraling two-hundred seventy degrees before facing the realm portal. Sticking to the agreement from earlier, she put her foot down, speeding toward the realm exit, leaving Connor just behind her.

Approaching the portal, she vanished into it with a flash of light, the realm symbol vanishing with her. A moment later, a wave of energy swept over the realm. As the Vultures flew away and sunset turned to night, parts of the track compressed and others opened, revealing a simpler path down to the final stretch of track.

As Marie flew out of the Wheel of Power she was ecstatic. She finally won! She truly belonged with the best. As she slowly stopped in her garage, an orange burst of light erupted next to her, as the realms reward appeared in her car. A beautiful orange Accelecharger with the curvy realm symbol on the front. Reading the bottom, the realm name was 'Cliffside'. She supposed it was fitting enough. Gently taking the alien cartridge in her hand, she barely noticed the other drivers leaving the realm behind her. With five minutes left on the timer, the drivers drove back into their garages, prepared to wait for and win the next realm.

Aidan's Music Playlist:

This chapter's music choice is: Nightmare Run from Indie Cross. Enjoy!

W.C.F. Lore:

According to Acceleracers: Ignition, there are over 100 racing realms meaning that all the realms could totally be cannon. Take that as you will.

Will's Accelecharger Study:

"Will, did you find out what my Accelecharger does yet?"

"Yes, the Cliffside realm Accelecharger prevent momentum loss while turning, meaning you can effectively turn at full speed without any risk."

"So I don't have to slow down to turn if it's active?"

"Precisely! You'll have the most speed through turns while using it."

"Did you name it yet?"

"Of course. It's called 'Turn & Burn'"

"Thank you Will!"

Hey sorry I procrastinated for a month. the next realm should not take a month if I just get to it. It's not entirely my fault I procrastinated then Overwatch 2 came out then I decided to play Skyrim for the first time then GTA had a good discount week. Ok, it's partially my fault, but shut up. Well, that's all, sorry it took so long. Have a good day and I'll see you in the next chapter!

Next Chapter: Realms: Iced Treat