9-5: Driving Lessons
The comments on singing hotdogs were ridiculous and I appreciate the participators. Also, I love you all! Now read and review.
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Janika could hardly reach the pedals and had had to tie a piece of wood to the bottom of her shoe with the shoelaces to make it work. Starting the car had been easy, but everything else was almost enough to make the other occupants in the vehicle a tad bit jumpy.
"Those are the windshield wipers!" Yumi screeched. Her white knuckles gripped the sides of the passenger seat as she sat bracing herself against it, rigid as a post.
"Relax. It was just a mistake. The blinkers have to be around here somewhere. How do you use hand-signals? Erm…but first which way, Dan? Left or right?"
She glanced back and saw a Paris map filling the backseat with a tuft of his pale blonde hair sticking up behind it. "I'm working on it. This isn't very easy, you know. Hey, don't look at me! Turn around!"
"I need to know now! The light's green already and people are honking!"
"Left!" She started turning. "You're other left!" both he and Yumi shouted in panic.
"I knew that!" She swerved and nearly clipped an oncoming car. Yumi screamed and Dan shouted while Janika hit the gas and sped past, gaining speed.
"Are you trying to kill us all?" the Japanese girl wondered frantically.
She shrugged evasively as she avoided a pedestrian who had to make a flying leap to get out of her way. "Stop overreacting, you guys. You should endeavor not to let your blood pressure become too high. Besides, all this shouting is getting on my nerves."
Yumi and Dan stopped freaking out long enough to give Janika a look that could have killed her if she had met it. As it was, she eluded death by the glaring daggers of her companions because she was watching the road.
Not that she could see much of the road. Her eyes hardly cleared the dashboard so that to other drivers it looked like the car was driving itself. At least, that's the way it looked to the cop at the street corner.
"Uh…I've got a vehicle driving itself haphazardly down Cherub Avenue," the policeman spoke into his radio.
"Can you describe the vehicle?" the woman at the other end asked.
"It's a yellow Twinkie."
Janika jerked the wheel right to get out of the wrong lane of traffic and sheepishly apologized to the other passengers. "Sorry about that. I think the block is slipping off my foot. It's getting harder to touch the pedals."
Yumi's face looked a little green as she muttered weakly, "Are we there yet?"
Dan reached up and patted her shoulder comfortingly. "Almost. We have about three minutes left on this road and then we'll be taking a right on Crescent—holy cow! There's a huge line of cop cars behind us!"
That was news to Janika. "What? Where?"
"Aren't you using the mirrors!"
"Well, how am I supposed to adjust them? I can't even reach the rear-view mirror and I'm not used to looking at the side-mirrors. Gee whiz! Can't you just apply a little bit of self control and let me drive?"
"Shut up, Janika!" Yumi snarled. "You're in no position to talk! We're going to get pulled over and then get arrested and then go to jail and Aelita will never make it to the factory and then—"
"We'll just have to take a little detour, people. Hold onto your sneakers," she warned before making a sharp U-turn that spun the car about on two wheels (A/N: oh, that's classic in car chases!). Only a miracle kept them from tipping as they skidded on the pavement.
The flashing police cars followed, but the opposite lane of traffic had been disturbed already and a jam was forming quite readily. Dan found a nice alternative route that got them back on schedule while the police tried desperately to figure out where they had gone.
"We're only a few streets from your factory," the blonde kid said with relief. "And I think Aelita's coming around. That U-turn must have shaken her out of her daze. Umm…Janika? You can start slowing down about now," he advised, noting that the scenery was going by very rapidly.
"I have a little problem here," she said from the front seat. "The block fell off and I can't reach the pedals."
Yumi unfastened her seatbelt and dove to the floor, sifting among the empty soda cans and hamburger wrappers littered about to find the block. "I don't see it!"
"Just push the brake!" Dan clamored behind her.
"Which one is the brake?"
"I think it's the right," Janika told her.
"The left!" Dan corrected.
Yumi tried to push down on it and the car began to slow, but she realized too late that the block had fallen underneath the pedal and refused to budge, also preventing them from stopping completely. "It's stuck!" she screamed.
"This might help," the driver said aloud as she shifted into first. The car jerked and the engine whined as they cruised along at 30 miles an hour in the lowest gear. "At least it's working."
"There's the factory!" Yumi cried out as she sat back up. "What are we going to do?"
"Well, since we can't completely stop, I guess I'll just have to try going into the river. Shall we try?"
"What do you mean 'shall we'?" Dan yelled in dismay at her calm speech. "We have no choice, do we?"
"True," Janika agreed. "One crash landing coming up."
(V)
Jeremy paced, one eye twitching in anxiety. "They should have been here an hour ago!"
Ulrich grabbed his friend's shoulder and pointed across the bridge to where a car resembling a Twinkie was roaring toward the fence. They watched in horror as it crashed through the frail barrier and fell straight down the sharp incline to hurtle into the river!
It sat there in the shallow water and the doors slowly creaked open. They saw their friends get out, including a stranger who had Aelita thrown over his shoulder.
"Who is that?" the computer genius asked.
"I dunno, but his ride is junked now," Odd said with a chuckle. "Looks like my girlfriend was driving. Yeah, go Janika!" he called. She threw him the Peace Sign.
Jeremy stared at them as they climbed back up the other side. The stranger put his burden down as they got to the top and she lay there, unmoving. "Wait a second… Something's wrong with Aelita!"
He raced across the bridge and shoved past the unfamiliar kid to reach his beloved A.I. who was just beginning to regain awareness. Before he could ask about her health, Yumi stumbled forward and seized the collar of his shirt, lifting him up onto his tippy-toes and growling, "Next time we split up, you're paired with Janika. Got it, Shorty!"
"Okay!" he squeaked in a falsetto voice.
Odd and Ulrich came across and pulled their unfortunate friend free of Yumi's iron claws. "Did Janika go psycho on you guys?" the punk wondered as he gave his girl's hand a reassuring squeeze.
The Japanese teenager glared at him. "As a matter of fact, no. We were all freaking out while she calmly took us on a Joyride of Terror!"
Dan discreetly shifted on his feet behind them, hands in his pockets, not really sure what to do. His aunt's car was toast and he was dead unless he could come up with some really convincing story. He looked up and saw the tranquil girl with her long dark braid break away from the group and stare at him with an expression he couldn't put a name to.
She tossed over the keys and he caught them instinctively. "Your car needs gas."
Dan smirked despite himself. "And maybe just a little tune-up."
(V)
X.A.N.A. seethed silently. The last command hadn't worked. The Warrior had interfered and without a direct order to kill her off, Krelle had resorted to less effective measures that resulted in her defeat.
Once again he had overestimated his creation and that small margin of error had cost him victory. But these small battles meant nothing if he could still win the war. A sly smile crept across his insubstantial features. Not all was lost.
He reached out with his influence and forced Krelle awake. The Pawn sat up straight, hearing her master's authoritative voice. "Find them. They are here."
"Yes, Master," she said aloud as visions flashed through her mind. She knew where to go, where they were, and she would locate them.
Looking around, she realized she was in a small building. Several male humans were standing there staring at her with anger in their eyes. One attempted to communicate saying, "How did you make that lizard appear?"
"Why did you tear up our zoo?"
"No, you idiots. Let me talk to her." The third man stepped closer and pulled her to her feet. "What kind of weapon did you use?"
Krelle's face was completely devoid of all emotion as she replied with glowing eyes, "I am the weapon."
There was not even a warning rumble. The floor suddenly collapsed as tons upon tons of water surged upward, tearing apart brick, stone, and concrete to reach the one calling it. The explosion blew the three men backward and engulfed the Pawn in its raging current. The water changed shape and transformed into a whirlpool.
When the men finally stood up again, there was a gaping hole in the floor and their prisoner was gone. They stared at each other in shock and amazement. "I don't know about you guys," one gulped, "but I'd say we just witnessed one of the Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
One threw a bucket that hit the guy upside the head.
This chapter's done, but now you readers have to answer this extremely important question: what would you do if you met Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails in a bar?