I've said this before, and I'll say it yet again… W.I.P. and I still don't own any off this! (Does anyone even read these anymore?)
AcceleRacers: Third Wheel
Chapter Four: Past Memories
"Everything looks normal Shirako," Lani said as she scanned the Bassline's system for malfunctions, "what's wrong?"
"I can't get on the Internet. I was going to download some new tunes," Shirako said calmly as he drove into a turn. He shrugged, "I'll just play the old ones louder." He reached for his volume control and cranked it up.
"Doctor Tezla must still be in the lab," Gig said to Nolo since Tezla hadn't come to the control room.
"Shirako!" Lani called to Shirako, but he didn't reply. She sighed and hit her fist on the console and then turned to Nolo, "Doesn't he know he could damage his hearing by listening to loud music?" She put her hands on her hips and looked at Nolo in a distressed way.
"Yeah," Nolo said, lifting his shoulders a bit, "I told him, but he acted like he didn't hear me." Nolo's face was straight and serious.
Lani looked at him through squinted eyes, and then he smiled. Lani couldn't resist smiling back, it was just like Nolo to make a joke about something so serious.
"Doctor Tezla are you there?" Gig said into a communicator, but no reply came. He turned to Lani and Nolo, "There's something wrong with the security camera in the lab."
In the lab, the drone that Gig had reactivated stood using Tezla's leg supports. It pushed a button on a mechanical device and the device lit up, flashing words in the language of the AcceleRons.
Meanwhile, Wylde was hard at work trying to get Flathead Fury done quickly. It was eating him up not being able to race in the realms, to not be able to race against Kurt.
"Stupid Tork, if he hadn't have let Monkey take Spine Buster into the realm I wouldn't be out here trying to fix up a new car for me to drive." He growled as he tweaked his engine a bit, he was about to comment some more when Lani's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Shirako! Can you hear me?" She said.
Wylde looked up from his engine just in time to see the frame of a car being lowered. He squinted his eyes at the driver, and then realized that it was a drone behind the wheel. The one that Gig had reactivated. How'd it get down here? Wylde wondered vaguely.
But Wylde didn't really have time to think, the drone was heading towards the portal, he had to stop it before it got there. So heroically he dropped his tools and broke off into a dead-end sprint towards the ever faster moving car.
"Dang it," he heaved as he ran towards the car, "How come I'm stuck rounding up rouge drones?" He quickened his pace and turned a corner, hoping that he'd be able to cut the drone off. Bingo, there it was. Wylde jumped onto the car's frame.
Nolo rushed into the lab, "Tezla!" he called, looking around for Doctor Tezla.
"Nolo," Doctor Tezla replied from his position on the ground, "get the transmitter," he pointed to a strange object that was sitting on one of the tables in the lab.
Nolo looked around for anything that he could use to bust the transmitter and found a wrench. With a heavy swing he brought it down onto the transmitter, busting it up. Nolo glanced around the lab, 'Where's the drone?"
Wylde glared at the drone, "How come you've got a car and I don't?" He said in a humorously annoyed voice.
The drone looked at Wylde as he hung onto the car, and then drove the car onto the AcceleDrome's track. Wylde felt his body lift up slowly as the car picked up speed, "Whoa!" Now he was clinging on at a tremendous speed, if he didn't do something and do it fast he would either lose his grip on the car or be sucked into the realm in a half-built car… without an EDR device, and he wasn't about to let either happen. He reached for the drone's head and pulled it forward. The car swerved and Wylde managed to push the drone down. He reached for the brake and pushed it as hard as he could.
Finally, just meters away from the portal, the car came to a violent stop, throwing the drone through where the windshield would have been.
That's what you get for not wearing a safety belt, Wylde thought with a smirk as he watched the drone bounce along the track for a ways and then finally fall off the end of the track.
While all that was going on, Lani had some troubles of her own, Kurt and Shirako had run into a sweeper. Luckily they'd gotten rid of it, but not before a sweeper drone had time to attach itself to Shirako's car and started to drain Bassline's Nitrox 2 tank. Red lights were flashing, "Shirako, you've got a leak in the Nitrox two tank," but Lani couldn't get a hold of Shirako because of his loud music.
Since Lani couldn't get in touch with Shirako, she decided to talk to Kurt, "Kurt, you've got to get him to stop." She said in a desperate voice.
Kurt nodded his head, "There's only one way to stop Shirako." Kurt sped up, but Shirako too was going fast.
Shirako managed to pass one drone, and then came up behind another. He took one turn a little too wide and his car went over the edge, luckily landing on a lower section of the track, crushing the sweeper drone that had attached itself.
"If Shirako uses his booster, his car will explode," Lani said to Kurt, her voice even more desperate than before.
Kurt sped up and managed to close in on Shirako and another drone. With a last great attempt, Kurt pushed his Nitrox Two button and closed the gap between him and Shirako.
Shirako's finger neared the Nitrox Two button, but Kurt slammed against the side of Bassline, pushing it closer to the edge.
Nolo returned from the lab, "Tezla's alright Lani," he said as he walked in.
Lani looked away from the on board camera screen and looked worriedly at Nolo who saw the scene between Shirako and Kurt.
"What's Kurt doing?" he shouted pointing at the screen, watching as Shirako and Bassline went flying over the edge of the track thanks to the push from Kurt.
Bassline fell fast and Shirako reached for the EDR and pushed it. Immediately he was transported out of the realm and thrown into the air mattress that Nolo and Lani had set up during the Water Realm. "Cool," Shirako said as he landed safely on the ground.
"What the heck does Kurt think he's doing pulling a stunt like that? Shirako's one of our guys, is winning that important to him?" Nolo said in an angry voice.
Lani put her hands on her hips and shook her head, "Listen to what you just said. Does that sound anything like Kurt at all?"
Nolo sighed and shook his head, "No it doesn't. So that's why I want to know what's with him?"
Lani looked at Nolo, "What's with him is that Shirako picked up a drone, and it was draining his Nitrox Two, if Kurt hadn't had forced Shirako to use the EDR and Shirako had pressed the Nitrox Two button, Bassline would have exploded."
"Man, lucky for us Kurt pushed him over the edge." Nolo said, nodding.
Lani shook her head and laughed, "Yeah, lucky for us Kurt was there."
While Lani and Nolo were laughing off a near-fatal incident, Wylde was driving the half built car back into the Maniac's garage, still upset that he wasn't able to go into a realm, but in a somewhat lighter mood seeing a Teku having to escape, "Don't see Metal Maniacs escaping from realms," Wylde said in a low voice, completing forgetting that it'd been a Maniac who'd first escaped from a realm.
As the end of the one hour neared every driver had returned to the AcceleDrome, though empty handed. A drone had reached the end of the realm first.
At diner that night Kurt looked over at Shirako, "Sorry about in the realm."
Shirako bobbed his head and looked back at Kurt, "No problem. Lani told me about the tank. It's cool." He kept bobbing his head to the beat of his music and then went back to eating, one of his hands tapping the table to the rhythm of his music.
"That was a close call for Shirako today," Karma said as she leaned against her locker, "Good thing we have Lani looking out for all us drivers."
Taro slammed his locker shut and looked at her and then said, "Yeah, good thing." He looked back at his closed locker and then turned away from Karma, "I'm going to go work on my car."
"What about dinner?" Karma asked, not really in a concerned way, just a curious one.
"Not hungry." Taro replied as he started walking off towards the Maniac's garage.
"Hmm," Karma said to herself, "that was strange."
"She used to be with him," Wylde said walking over to his locker and putting something in it.
"What?" Karma said, taken by surprise by Wylde's sudden comment.
"Taro and Lani. After the World Race they were a couple for a while. Not sure what happened though. I might now if I hadn't been in prison that is." Wylde growled, slamming his locker shut.
Karma looked at where Taro had gone, "Hmm, Taro and Lani? No wonder the tension." She said silently.
"He was stupid for going after a Wave Ripper anyway." Wylde growled. Sitting on a bench, fidgeting with his left shoe.
"Wave Ripper?" Karma asked, leaning back once again onto the lockers.
"You don't know what a Wave Ripper is? I thought Vert would've filled your ears up with talk about the Wave Rippers team." Wylde smirked, "He was the leader after all."
Karma looked curiously at Wylde, "No he's never mentioned that before."
"I'm surprised that he hasn't." Wylde muttered under his breath.
"And why is that?" Karma asked, this was interesting. Not only was she learning more about Vert, Taro and Lani, she was talking to Wylde, someone who didn't seem to like taking to Teku very much.
"You got filled in about the World Race right? Well there were five teams, Dune Ratz, lead by Kadeem, Scorchers, lead by Taro, Street Breed," Wylde growled, "lead by Kurt, Wave Rippers, lead by Vert, and then a team called Road Beast, lead by a guy named Banjee. Each team's car had special abilities that they could perform. Like Wave Ripper cars had aero jets, like your Teku cars. Didn't you ever wonder how they came up with those?"
Karma shook her head. Yes, very interesting indeed. "You said Kurt was the leader of the team Street Breed right? How could he have been if he was a spy for Gelorum?"
A hatred flashed behind Wylde's eyes, "He was both leader and traitor."
"Go on," Karma said, resting her right foot against the locker behind her and folding her arms over her chest.
"Well Taro was a scorcher and Lani a Wave Ripper, so their cars handled different things. Well from what I heard from Vert it seemed as if he and Taro had to go on a rescue mission and save Lani from some lave flow." Wylde exhaled, "And they got together."
"Vert told me that you also participated in this World Race. You on Street Breed?"
At this Wylde slammed his fist against the bench, "No," He stood and started to leave, "I was a Wave Ripper." He disappeared in the direction Taro had.
"Well that was unexpected. I would have never guessed that Wylde would have been able to stand being on a team with Vert. He always seems to hate him." Karma said as she started to walk towards the mess hall.
When she entered the dinning room she passed by Lani who had seemed to just get up from the Teku's table. They smiled at one another as they passed and Karma sat down at the Teku table, across from Kurt.
"So she was a Wave Ripper eh?" Karma said nodding towards the doors, talking about Lani.
Kurt looked surprised, "Yeah, where'd you figure that out?"
"Wave Ripper?" Nolo said leaning in, "What's that?"
"Vert had mentioned it whenever we first got here, he said, 'Lani! It's good to see another Wave Ripper.' I thought nothing about it really at the time. Kurt and Vert had both kind of given me a run down on what had happened in the past." Karma replied, "But it turns out that it was Vert's team that he led during the World Race."
Nolo nodded, he too had been filled in about the World Race, though not in great detail.
"So who'd you hear this from?" Kurt asked, "Taro?"
Karma shook her head, "No, another Wave Ripper."
"Another Wave Ripper? You mean there's more? Who?" Nolo asked.
"Markie," replied Kurt, "but how―"
"Wylde?" Nolo said, extremely surprised, "Wylde was on a team with Vert?"
"Yeah, didn't you know that?" Kurt asked.
"No, I just thought he'd be on a team with you." Nolo replied.
Kurt looked down at his plate, "No I refused him. Didn't want him on my team. Didn't want him to get hurt."
Nolo looked at Karma and she looked back. They both knew that this conversation was headed down a rough track, and there was no Hyper Pod to help them out, so the both decided to change the topic… at the same time.
"So how's―"
"I really―"
"the food?"
"like this chicken."
Kurt looked up at both of them and laughed, "Umm, yes?" he said, smiling.
Karma smiled in return, but glanced over at Nolo with a concerned look on her face.
Nolo returned the look but didn't make any further motions, he simply went back to eating, though his body was much stiffer.
Kurt too seemed to sense the tension, "There's nothing the matter. It's the past, it's over." He said leaning forwards onto the table.
"Yeah," Karma said.
Back in the Maniacs garage Wylde was working on Flathead Fury, while Taro was idly messing around with Rivited. Both men had looks on their faces that hinted that they were recalling the past, and doubt, the memories were painful.
Taro's eyes narrowed on the wrench he had in his hand and his fist squeezed it tightly, and though he was silent, thoughts raced through his mind. Did she have to remind me about Lani right now? Taro's grip on the wrench tightened. Like I don't realize that Lani's always there, watching out for us, telling us how to drive. Taro releases the wrench and it fell to the ground with a loud, echoing clatter.
"Hey Taro," Wylde called over to him, "what ya still doing here?"
Taro looked over at Wylde, "I could ask you the same thing Wylde."
Wylde shrugged, "I already ate. I wanna get my car ready so I can prove once and for all that I'm better than Kurt."
Taro sighed, "I'm not hungry."
"Alright, suit yourself." Wylde nodded his head towards the lockers, "was it that Teku, Karma?"
Taro's eyes narrowed slightly, "Was what Karma?"
"That made you not hungry." Wylde replied.
"No, no, I'm just not that hungry." Taro replied.
Wylde smirked, "Okay," he went back to working on Flathead Fury.
Taro shook his head, "Some things just don't change."
Later that night, as both Teku and Metal Maniacs got ready for a well deserved sleep, Kurt was busy tuning up Battle Spec. He only had turned on one set of work lights, he hadn't wanted anyone to come in a disturb him, but like always, he was found out, and by the last person he'd wanted to find him.
"Look what we've got here, a Teku making sure his car is all pretty." Wylde sneered as he walked into the Teku garage.
"What are you doing in here Markie?" Kurt snapped at Wylde.
Wylde smirked, "Just thought I'd see what loser was still up. Seems like that loser is you."
"Typical Metal Maniac," Kurt shrugged, "don't you realize that you are still up as well."
Wylde growled, "But unlike you, I'm a Metal Maniac."
"And that's supposed to mean something?" Kurt retorted.
Wylde took several steps closer to Kurt and tightened his fist, "Yeah, that means I'm the best."
Kurt shook his head and turned back to his car, "Whatever little brother, go to sleep, it seems like you're already dreaming."
Wylde grabbed Kurt by the shoulder and flipped him around, shoving him against the car, "No, it seems like you're the one who is about to go to sleep."
Kurt pushed Wylde off him, "No, I'm going into the city."
Wylde stood silent for a moment and then said, "What for? You running away? I knew you were always a cowa―"
"I'm going to try and find out as much as I can about this mystery driver. Don't tell me you don't care to learn more about him." Kurt said, walking around to the driver's side.
"If you're going, then I'm going." Wylde said, stepping in front of Battle Spec, like that would actually stop Kurt.
"With what car?" Kurt said, stifling a laugh.
"How about I just take your car from you? That'd be funny then?" Wylde growled.
"I'd like to see you try, Little Brother." Kurt said in a cocky tone.
"I don't need to, I'm taking Power Bomb." Wylde said.
"Power Bomb? Don't you need your leader's permission to take a team car?" Kurt asked.
"I don't take orders from no one anymore." Wylde said as he stormed away from Kurt and headed for the Maniac's garage.
A few minutes later Wylde pulled into the Teku garage in Power Bomb, "You ready to race Kurt?"
Kurt nodded back, "I'm always ready to win, Little Brother."
Both drivers revved their engines, glaring at each other with equal hatred and resentment. The light above them flickered once, twice, three times, on the fourth flicker Kurt and Wylde tore out of the Teku garage and out of the AcceleDrome.
And yet the end of another chapter. While I was writing I didn't realize how long the part in the Cliffside Realm was, in fact, I wrote quite a bit more than I expected, so I just decided not to include the Ice Realm in this chapter, that'll be either chapter five or six, depending on length, etc. Anyway, thanks for the reviews. Please, comment on my fan fiction because it really helps me know what my readers like and dislike. So far I've gotten 112 hits on this fan fiction, not a lot, but not bad for being out for only a short amount of time! I hope you all like this chapter and I apologize for the long Cliffside Realm. I promise to make the Ice Realm more interesting! I'll update soon!