The Truth That Lies Beyond The Lies

An AcceleRacers Fanfiction

By: Wings of Speed

Disclaimer: Ownership disclaimed in Chapter 1…shouldn't that be good enough?

Summary: Vert manages to escape from the Silencerz base, but now he finds himself lost and alone. He runs into a group of street racers, but will they prove to be friendly or enemies?

The Truth That Lies Beyond The Lies

Chapter 2: The Open Road

He wasn't exactly sure where here was; he had continued driving once he had escaped from the Silencerz Headquarters. Had continued on until he was quite certain he wasn't being followed, it was only then that he stopped to attempt to figure out where he was.

And where here was, he wasn't exactly certain.

What he was certain of was that he was lost. And alone.

His surroundings reminded him of those around the AcceleDrome, but something about the rock formations was completely different. Plus, there was a coolness in the air that didn't fit with what he was familiar with.

It would be best to continue driving for right now, at least until he reached someplace that would give him a good idea of where he was. If only he could change the appearance of his car the way the Silencerz could, Reverb would stick out like a sore thumb and if the Silencerz were looking it wouldn't take them long to find.

Shifting gears, he squealed the tires as he once more found himself driving down a lonely and unknown road. He passed road sign after road sign, but none of them gave him a clue as to where he was. He didn't recognize any of the city or town names and he found himself wondering exactly what state he was in.

He'd come to the conclusion that he wasn't in his home state anymore and that he was somewhere near the East Coast, or up north somewhere. The only thing he was certain of was that he needed to be heading southwest.

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They had parked the Sweeper somewhere within the foothills on the outskirts of the city and headed in on foot. They needed to find a car since all of theirs had been lost in the Racing Drones headquarters. Yet where would they find a car that Vert might recognize, and find it in such a short amount of time?

"We don't have time to rebuild any of the cars, we don't know when or if Vert's going to show up," Nolo said, his head tilted up to gaze into the darkening sky.

Karma was leaning back against the guardrails, Taro on her left side and Nolo on her right. Her gaze turned to regard her leader, "For all we know, he could've already been here and left."

"Maybe," Taro said, his eyes looking down toward the ground, his mind sifting through ideas and plans. Yeah, they definitely needed to get new cars, but without access to the AcceleDrome and its seemingly endless supplies of car parts, that would be almost impossible.

"If only there was a way to get in touch with him." Kurt said softly.

Everyone nodded their head, but knew it was near impossible. He'd need a communication device like the one that Nolo and Lani were carrying, but as far as everyone knew he didn't have one and the communications in Reverb wouldn't work. The communication chips didn't have enough of a power boost to them to attempt to contact the comm. unit in Reverb. That's if he was still driving Reverb. There was no guarantee that he was still driving the team car, for all they knew Reverb could have been destroyed.

"Listen," Karma spoke up, "I know that Lani already said that the comm. devices won't interact with the comm. unit in Reverb, but isn't there a way to rig it somehow?"

Monkey took the comm. device from Nolo and turned it around a few times in his hands. He held it up so it was directly in front of his eyes and stared at it, just stared at it. Flipping the little gadget around, he took the back off of it and began investigating its power source and innards.

Finally, after a few minutes, he shook his head. "The range on this thing isn't very far. Lani and Dr. Tezla must not be to far from us for us to still be able to pick up their signal. The only way we could use this to talk to Vert is if he's within a certain radius from us." The Metal Maniac glanced over to where Shirako was sitting, a few yards from everyone else, his music turned up enough that they could hear it even over here.

"And the cliffs and rock formations around here are going to interfere as well. We won't have a very high percentage rate of being able to contact him, at least not with this thing." Monkey tossed the comm. device back to Nolo.

So that was the end of it, they'd have to wait and see if Vert would show up. There was no way to get a hold of him, no chance of reaching him and seeing if he was ok.

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The sun had set about half an hour ago and it seemed to Vert that he had been driving forever. The feeling of loneliness was intensifying and he began to wonder how his friends had fared. Were they ok? Had they made it out of the AcceleDrome without any problems? Had Lani and Dr. Tezla made it out ok too?

These were questions he had no answers too and he desperately wanted answers. He desperately wanted to get home but right now he didn't really know in which direction home was. He still had no clue as to where he was or if he was even going in the correct direction. The only thing he knew for certain was that he needed to continue heading Southwest.

He came upon another sign, read the cities and mileage listed and sighed to himself for about the thousandth time. These cities weren't familiar to him either and gave him no clue as to where he was, and to make matters worse, he was running low on fuel and had no money.

A car passed by him, no, actually it blew past him, giving the impression that he was sitting still. Right behind that car came another, blowing past him like there was no tomorrow. Someone was in a hurry to get no place fast, or perhaps they knew something he didn't. Or it could be a trap; they could be Silencerz cars in disguise.

Just then, another car came zooming past, hot on the bumpers of the first two. Vert glanced down at his speedometer and noticed that he wasn't exactly doing the speed limit himself. Yet these three cars had blown past him like it was an everyday occurrence, they'd made passing him look relatively easy.

He watched as two more cars came speeding up on his bumper, swerved over into the passing lane and were gone before he even had the time to blink. Paying a bit more attention to these last two cars he was able to identify them. The first had been a modified Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII; the second had appeared to be a Toyota Supra, not as modified as the Lancer.

What would be the possibility of the Silencerz sending five cars out after him and if it were them, wouldn't they have tried forcing him off the road, or attempt to follow him in the very least? These cars didn't even seem remotely interested in him, hadn't even tried coaxing him into a race, like most street racers were want to try.

Making up his mind, he decided it wouldn't hurt to follow them. He was lost as it was, a few miles off the beaten path wouldn't matter, now would it? Besides, maybe they could help him out; tell him where he was and which way he should be heading to get home.

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She was the leader of this particular street racing gang, a young woman of about 18 with long strawberry blond hair that reached down almost to the small of her back. Her eyes were a mysterious shade of blue, the colors always shifting depending on the lighting and her particular mood. She was a capable leader and wasn't at all afraid to get her hands dirty, always willing to do the work on her own car, but if it was something beyond her range of knowledge, she also wasn't afraid to allow someone else to do the work.

She carried herself with a cool elegance that brooked no debate; what she said goes, and there were no questions asked. The rest of her crew followed her without reservations, trusting completely in her instincts and decisions.

She went by the name of Trinity, a cool, composed leader that had only lost a few races in her two short years on the racing scene. She was by no means the best and knew there was always room for improvement, at least with the right teacher. She hadn't found that teacher yet, thought she had once, but that just didn't pan out in the end.

She was at the moment inspecting the underneath of her hood, a finger steadily grazing a path across a hot hose, searching for the break that had caused a decrease in power. With eyes trained on the offending hose she stooped down further to investigate, finally discovering the small rupture that had spewed forth the steam and vapor earlier. With a small smile spreading across her frosted lips, she pulled a roll of what looked like electrical tape from her back pocket. From her other pocket she pulled a small tube of sealant.

"Never leave home without it," she said as she placed the small black roll of tape on the front fender. Unscrewing the cap from the sealant, she applied a small amount to the rupture. Once she was sure that the sealant had worked its way into the small break she picked the roll of tape up. "This should mend things up until I can get that replaced," she said as she ripped a small portion off of the roll. With a quick flick of her wrist, she wrapped the tape around the break. "Or at least until I can get you to the garage."

"We got a crasher," she heard one of her other teammates call out.

Glancing up from where she was just finishing with her minor repair, she watched as a strange blue car pulled up along side of her cousin Courtney's Toyota Supra. She didn't recognize the car, hadn't seen it around at all, and she was positive if she had, she'd remember. With a soft bang, she shut the hood to her Lancer and turned her undivided attention to the stranger.

The car rolled to a stop, sitting parallel with the Supra. Courtney was sitting on the hood of her car, one leg dangling down in front of the driver's wheel well, the other leg bent so that her chin was resting on her knee. Her long ashen blond hair fell in waves and ringlets down her back, a few stray stands obscuring her vision as they waved in the gentle breeze across her face. Her emerald green eyes held a spark of interest as the car came to a complete stop, no less then a foot and a half from her own car.

Courtney was sorely tempted to get down from her perch and go over and give the stranger a piece of her mind. The Atomic Winds did not often get time to themselves, there always seemed to be a rival group that wanted a piece of them. When they finally did get a night to themselves, they wanted to enjoy it without having someone crash their alone time. Which this jerk seemed to decide to do.

She watched as her cousin and best friend walked toward the stranger, who had yet to get out of their car. There was a strange gleam in her cousin's ocean blue eyes, as if she were excited about the notion of giving the crasher a fond farewell. Trinity glanced toward Courtney and the blonde's eyebrows raised in silent questioning.

Trinity shook her head, indicating she would deal with this interloper in her own way and needed no help from anyone else. Courtney just nodded her head, silently allowing her cousin to know that she understood the silent order. She glanced over at their three other teammates and smiled, she received smiles back and knew that they were also waiting for the show that was about to begin.

Trinity walked up to the unknown blue car and leaned against the front quarter panel, right in front of the driver's door. "Hey, listen, I don't know who you are or who you think you are, but you can't just crash any party you damn well please. This is by invitation only and for some odd reason, I don't think you got one."

The driver side door swung out and up, similar to the style of a Ferrari or Lamborghini and made Trinity back up in a hurry, not expecting it. Her blue eyes narrowed in annoyance, figuring that this guy was showing off. Not that it was going to get him any points.

Sure, he had a pretty awesome car, but that didn't mean much if you didn't know how to use what was underneath that hood. Plus, just 'cause you have a cool car don't mean you can go crashing other people's parties, it just didn't work that way around here.

"Listen buddy," her voice had begun to grow dark with anger, "You need to just pack it up and go back where you came from."

A cat's screech was heard from one of the other drivers and Trinity turned to regard them for a moment. It was Courtney's on again off again boyfriend, he was only allowed to tag along 'cause of Courtney and once things hit the fan and stayed that way, he'd be out of the group permanently. She eyed him for a moment before glowering and indicating with a mere expression that he should remain silent. Her eyes said all that needed to be said.

The smile that had been on his face quickly disappeared and he suddenly found something of immense interest in the hood of his Dodge Neon. He didn't meet her eyes again and she took this as her cue to return her attention to the party crasher.

"You've got five seconds to get yourself outta here or we'll run you out ourselves. Your choice."

Vert couldn't help the smile that crossed his face or the chuckle that escaped his throat. He couldn't believe his luck.

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"I don't think he's gonna show," Nolo said, his voice sounding rather despondent. They had been waiting for hours for Vert to show, but so far there had been no sign of him. Several cars had passed, but none of them looked like Reverb or sounded like anything a Teku would drive.

"We don't know that, we don't even know where he's at," Tork pointed out, but he was feeling the same gnawing agitation that the rest of the Metal Maniacs and Teku were feeling. They were beginning to loose hope and that was not a good thing. You never gave up on a teammate, even if they were from an opposing team.

"Maybe he returned to the AcceleDrome," Monkey spoke up, trying to put a glimmer of hope into the situation. "Maybe he figured we'd be looking for him there."

"Could be," Taro agreed, but there was a note of uncertainty in his voice.

They had no idea where Vert was at, where the Wheel had put him out at. They didn't even know if he was in the state or on another continent. For all they knew, he could be in Australia!

"We have to believe he's trying to get back to us, we can't give up hope." Karma spoke up, but even she was feeling the sense of dread that was eating at each of their hearts. She glanced towards Shirako, he hadn't said two words since they had gotten there, he didn't even seem to be paying attention to what was going on.

Like usual, his headphones were turned up and the rest of the world was tuned out.

Wylde walked toward him, a mischievous grin plastered on his face and Karma had a sudden feeling that Shirako was going to be participating in things whether or not he wanted to.

Shirako glanced up just in time to see Wylde's hand come down. Within seconds Shirako's source of music was gone and he was assaulted by the sounds of the real world. He stared in stunned silence at the Metal Maniac, not sure if he should be downright mad or irate about having his headphones so rudely taken away.

He settled for irate as a flash of anger crossed his face. Within seconds he was up and in Wylde's face, their noses just inches from one another.

"Thought you might want to join in on the discussion, but it's kinda hard for you to if you're listening to that shit you call music." Wylde said, a smirk replacing the grin on his face.

"Whatever," Shirako said and hit a button on the remote on his wrist. He stared in stunned silence when nothing happened, then a look of dejection crossed his face as he remembered that Bassline was still in the Drones' headquarters.

"Won't work this time," Wylde said, a look of satisfaction crossing his face. "At least we won't hafta listen to that crap. That techno shit becomes rather boring after a while, all it seems ta do is repeat, repeat and repeat some more." He looked toward Tork and the rest of the Metal Maniacs, "You Teku need to get something with more beat and variation to it, like the music we listen to."

Shirako snorted and crossed his arms in front of his chest, "So says you," was all he said and returned to his seat on the side of the road, his back leaning against the guard rails.

Wylde rolled his eyes; he'd never really heard the Teku say much, not even when he was in Bassline. A few complete sentences and that was about it, most everything else was 'Cool' or 'Yo'. "Can you even actually speak English Teku?"

Shirako glanced up at him and smiled, "Of course I can and I'd have to say a lot better than you can."

Wylde rolled his eyes and couldn't believe he had walked into that all by himself. "Whateva," was the only response given.

Tork figured that Wylde had had his fun, "Wylde, leave Shirako alone, we've got better things to worry about at the moment."

"Like Vert," Nolo added.

"He's fine," Kurt said, but he didn't feel very convinced.

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The guy stepped out of the car, his helmet still in place and hiding his identity. Trinity figured this was due to the fact that he was unwelcome and had intruded where he wasn't wanted. She heard what oddly sounded like a laugh come from behind the face shield and one of her eyebrows rose in curiosity.

"Care to let me in on what you think is so funny?" She asked, allowing her agitation to add a degree of coldness to her voice.

"Just as brash and outspoken as usual, huh Trinity?" He asked and watched in satisfaction as her mouth dropped in surprise and her eyes became as wide as saucers.

Somehow, this guy knew her!

Well, here's the second chapter to the story since everyone that reviewed made it rather clear that I should continue. Hope you liked it as well as the first chapter. Chapter 3 is already complete as is Chapter 4, they just need to be tweaked a bit and then maybe you'll get to read those in a timely manner, that's if you still want me to continue this.

I'd like to thank the five people that were kind enough to review; your reviews were greatly appreciated. To Alexandria Scherazade I have a special comment, yes perhaps Vert could've used the EDR, but there would be no telling exactly where it would put him out at with the AcceleDrome being destroyed. Plus, I liked the idea of Vert being lost and not having a clue where he's at. It just added drama to the mix.