The Truth That Lies Beyond The Lies
An AcceleRacers Fanfiction
By: Wings of Speed
Disclaimer: Still, as before, disclaimed in Chapter 1, hasn't changed.
Summary: It's time to spend a little time with the rest of the racers and see exactly what the Teku and Maniacs have been up to.
The Truth That Lies Beyond The Lies
Chapter 4: Go Fish and Strip Poker!
The Metal Maniacs and Teku were stranded within the belly of the Sweeper, the rain pelting the outside of the great green and black contraption. It was almost impossible to see the nose of the great beast, let alone to attempt to drive it in the rainy conditions. They had decided it was better to try their luck at being sealed within it than trying to drive it and crash it into some unknown.
Perhaps they should have tried their luck at driving it instead. You could only stand so much of playing a child's game after all.
"I'm not playing again," Nolo groused. They'd been playing Go Fish for the past hour or so, just to pass the time until the storm decided to cease its deluge. He most definitely was not playing that damn game again! It was a kid's game for Heaven's Sake and he was not going to play it for one more single minute. He'd had enough of listening to Monkey cry out happily: 'Go Fish!'. There was only so much a guy could take, and he'd reached his limit.
He glanced around at the gathered faces. Kurt was sitting to his left and Shirako was sitting to his right. Shirako seemed all but interested in the game, his head bopping up and down in rhythm to his music, which surprisingly for once was not up full blast. Karma was sitting on the other side of Kurt; she had a look on her face that implied severe boredom. Apparently he wasn't the only one that was growing sick of the game.
On Karma's other side sat Pork Chop, his eyes seemed to be staring off in space. Apparently most of those gathered were growing tired of the children's game. On Pork Chop's other side sat Monkey, he seemed to be the only one not in the least bit annoyed by the game; he was actually enjoying himself! To Monkey's right sat Taro, who looked for the most part like he was about to fall asleep; his eyes kept dipping shut then he'd jerk and look around to see if anyone had noticed. Next to him sat Wylde, who had a grin plastered on his face, as if he were enjoying the annoyance the rest were feeling. Between Wylde and Shirako sat Tork, who kept flexing his muscles and scowling at the cards he held in his hand. He looked like he was about ready to eat his cards just to get rid of them.
"Got a better idea?" Kurt asked, Nolo could tell by the expression on his teammate's face that Kurt was indeed hoping he did. Apparently Kurt was growing as tired of Go Fish as Nolo himself was. As mostly all of them were…with the exception of Monkey.
"How 'bout Strip Poker?" Wylde asked, the grin spreading further across his face. Well, apparently it wasn't totally the annoyance the rest were feeling that had Wylde looking like the proverbial cat that just ate the canary.
There was the resounding slap of skin hitting skin. Apparently Karma hadn't liked that idea for she'd reached across the space separating them and had slapped Wylde. "You're even crazier than I thought if you think I'd agree to that!" she ground out between clenched teeth. "Surely we can come up with something other than Strip Poker!" Anything would be better than that. How come she had to be the only female in the group at the moment? Where was Lani when you needed her anyhow?
"If ya got a better idea we're listenin'," Wylde responded, his smirk still in place.
Karma threw her hands up in the air, a sigh escaping from her lips. "Honestly, I'm surrounded by a bunch of morons!" She said, her voice edged with agitation. "There's no way in hell I'm taking any of my cloths off with you idiots around."
"Not even for a certain Metal Maniac?" Kurt whispered, his face just mere inches from her ear. Now he was wearing a grin to match that of his brother. It was at times like these that the family resemblance could be seen, to the point that it was uncanny.
Karma turned to glare at her teammate, debating whether or not she should slap him as well. Then she quickly looked around, checking to see if anyone else had heard what Kurt had said. Everyone else seemed oblivious, wallowing in their own boredom and annoyance.
Her eyes sought out Taro momentarily, but he was as uninterested in what was going on around him as the rest. They were all becoming edgy and restless, tired of being cooped up within the Sweeper. The only one who seemed to be paying attention to her and Kurt was Wylde, who still wore that grin that she was really bent on beating from his face.
Then she noticed something that had a feeling of dread welling up within the pit of her stomach. Everyone was listening, all be it very discreetly. Everyone's eyes were focused on anything but her and Kurt, but they had their heads turned so that they could hear what was being said. She seriously didn't know who she was going to kill first at that moment, Kurt or his brother. Could she possibly kill two birds with one stone?
With her luck at the moment, not very likely; one of them would manage to escape her claws somehow.
"Well?" Wylde asked, his eyes holding a gleam of mischief.
"Well what?" Karma responded, her thoughts turning dark and murderous.
"Ya got a better idea than Strip Poker?" He drawled.
She just glared at him, her mind working on a come back. Anything to wipe that grin off of his face that he was still wearing. But what? Finally she sighed, "No, I don't. But I'm not playing Strip Poker with the bunch of you. That just ain't happenin'." She ground out, her anger coloring her voice all sorts of red.
"Ya really know how to spoil the party, don't ya?" Wylde drawled, his eyes still gleaming with mischief. "I bet ya wouldn't have a problem with it if it were just you and T-" He begun, only to receive a death glare from the female Teku driver.
"Finish that sentence and you are going to die a very painful and quite slow death. You might want to rethink what you were going to say." Wylde just stared at her, she could tell by the look in his eyes he was trying to decide if she were being serious or just bluffing.
There was a sudden sound of snapping from the far corner, like electricity crackling. "I thought you'd turned that walking pile of bolts off," Wylde groaned, the mischievousness gone from his eyes to be replaced by a look of pained annoyance.
Monkey was up in an instant, all thoughts of the game gone from his mind in a flash. He headed toward the back of the Sweeper where Sparky was standing, once in a while flashes of electrical currents arcing into the air. "I was uploading a new program, seeing if maybe he could give us a little more information on what happened to Vert; where he might be."
"That bucket of bolts couldn't tell his head from a hole in the ground, how's it going to tell us where Vert ended up?" Wylde asked, watching as Monkey started to play around with a grouping of wires that was running from the makeshift robot to a strange looking contraption at its feet.
"With this new program he just may be able to do just that," Monkey answered, his attention mainly on his creation.
"What, tell his head from a hole in the ground?" Wylde questioned. He couldn't resist the mocking tone that had made its way into his voice. Picking on Monkey was almost as fun as picking on Karma.
"No, tell us where Vert's at." Monkey answered as he turned around momentarily to regard Wylde.
"I think Wylde's the one who can't tell his head from a hole in the ground," Karma whispered as she leaned over closer to Kurt.
Wylde turned angry eyes toward Karma, but now she was wearing an innocent expression, her eyes gazing at him in curiosity. "What?" She asked as if she had not a clue why he was glaring at her.
"I heard that," he replied succinctly. His eyes were narrowed slightly; it was far more fun to be the one throwing the jabs at everyone else, instead of the other way around.
She smiled sweetly at him, "Perhaps you'd much rather play Strip Poker with Sparky? But then again, that'd be about useless since he doesn't have anything to strip."
"Is it done raining yet?" Wylde asked, diverting the topic of conversation to something far more comfortable and so he wasn't getting outsmarted by an outspoken Teku.
Score one for the home team! Karma thought to herself in triumph. Her smile widened once she caught Wylde's gaze again, he just continued to glare at her.
"Hello," was heard from the far corner where Monkey was still working on the rebooting pile of junk, as Wylde tended to think of the robot. All eyes turned toward the Maniacs resident mechanic and his metal creation, Wylde continued to frown; a low groan escaping from his throat.
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"We're going to have to find a new place to establish a new base of operations. A new AcceleDrome…someplace that the Drones will not think of looking." Dr. Tezla said as his purple shaded glasses slipped down to the end of his nose. "Somewhere that no one will think of looking." He was thinking mainly of the Silencerz, the Drones couldn't possibly be a threat anymore, not now that Gelorum was destroyed. But would the Silencerz be a problem, now that their undercover agent Gig had been destroyed along with the AcceleDrome? There was now no way they could remain a step ahead of him in his research, they had no one on the inside anymore.
Lani glanced over at him, her eyes focusing on him for a few seconds before returning to the road in front of her. He was obsessed, beyond a doubt; the question was, would the drivers agree to drive for him anymore. He'd proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Racing Realms and the Accelerons were far more important to him than the safety of the drivers.
He hadn't given a care about the drivers that had returned from the Drones headquarters, he'd only been worried about Vert and whether or not the young man was going to be able to beat Gelorum at the end. He hadn't cared when the other drivers had been surrounded by Gelorum's henchmen, hadn't cared that within moments they could all be dead. The only important thing to him was Vert reaching the Sphere before Gelorum did.
Lani gently shook her head and said softly, "What good will it do to establish a new AcceleDrome if you have no drivers?" She continued to watch the road in front of her, debating herself on whether or not she'd remain with him. She wasn't sure if she could continue to work for the man if he allowed his all consuming need to discover what lay beyond the Racing Realms outweigh concern for those that worked for him.
He'd kept so many secrets from the others, secrets from her as well. The fact that Gig had been stolen technology didn't help much. Perhaps if he'd let her in on things that were going on some of what had happened could have been prevented. It was all what ifs though; the past couldn't be changed, not now.
"We have drivers," Dr. Tezla said, his voice sounding slightly frenzied.
"We had drivers. What makes you think they're going to want to continue driving for you when you've put their lives in danger? When you've made it clear countless times that the AcceleChargers and Racing Realms were far more important than their lives? You didn't start to worry about their safety until they started taking AcceleChargers into the Realms with them, and then, the only reason you worried was because of the AcceleChargers. You were worried about loosing them, not the drivers themselves. If the drivers returned unharmed was not of any concern to you.
"Do you really think they're going to want to return to that?" Lani asked, finally looking over at him. He didn't return her gaze, he continued to stare ahead, or turned to look out the window every few seconds. As if he were afraid to meet her gaze, afraid to read in her eyes that what she had said was the truth.
"What we were doing," he finally said, but still refused to look over at her, "was important-"
"What we were doing couldn't have been accomplished without them; they were just as important if not more. Before the Teku and Metal Maniacs were recruited, we'd lost how many drivers within the Realms? Even after they were recruited we still lost Kadeem, and almost lost Mar-Wylde as well. If Kurt and Taro hadn't disobeyed you and went into the Realms with the others, there's no telling what may have happened to Wylde." She paused, drawing in a breath, "Do you honestly think they're going to want to come back to that?"
He remained quiet for a few moments, thinking over what she had said. Some of what she said was true, he had put the lives of the drivers on the line, but it was only to discover what was beyond the Realms, to beat the Drones. Now there was the Silencerz to contend with, and they still had a working model of the Wheel of Power. Who was to say they wouldn't make it to the Sphere now?
"Driving is their lives, they'll want to continue, they'll want to go into the Realms again." He finally said. They'll want to beat the Silencerz, he silently said to himself.
Lani just looked at him for a second, then gently shook her head. There was no getting through to this man. He couldn't see the wrong in what he was doing, the wrong with how he way playing with the lives of the drivers that worked for him. She honestly hoped that the drivers wouldn't return, what with the AcceleDrome being destroyed.
It would take a while until Dr. Tezla could build a new headquarters, hopefully by that time the drivers would find other things to occupy their times, other careers to pursue. For some odd reason she didn't really see that happening, Dr. Tezla was correct when he had said that racing was their lives.
They would want to get back into the Realms, for the sheer pleasure of seeing who was better. There would be no more competition from the Drones now; the only team they'd have to worry about would be the Silencerz.
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"Did you get anywhere with it?" Kurt asked as he walked up behind Monkey, who was still tinkering around with Sparky. Karma and Nolo were following along behind him, Nolo watching as Monkey removed a wrench from a tool box he had managed to confiscate from somewhere while Karma kept looking behind her, at the rest of the drivers that were still seated on the floor of the Sweeper. They were no longer playing Go Fish at least; she wasn't entirely sure exactly what game they were playing now.
"I think, maybe…probably, perhaps," Monkey said, his attention still on Sparky. He was tightening a bolt on what could only be called the robot's chest. He put the wrench back down into the tool box and turned around to look at Kurt, Nolo and Karma. "I think maybe now we can get a little more information out of this."
"Has he got a better vocabulary now?" Nolo asked, looking questioningly at the robot. It still looked the same, no different. He couldn't really notice any difference in the contraption.
Monkey turned to regard the leader of the Teku, "No," he finally said. "I've added a sort of upgrade to him. I'm not sure if it'll really work or not."
"What sort of upgrade?" Karma asked, slowly walking around Monkey and Sparky. She carefully scrutinized the strangely put together pile of odd parts. It looked like a reject from some science horror movie gone wrong, or some mad scientist's idea of a horrible creature from the blue lagoon.
"Well, if everything went right," Monkey answered, "Then he should be able to give us a holographic recording of what he and Vert saw, maybe let us know exactly what happened to Vert." He turned his attention to Sparky.
The robot in turn seemed to place its attention on him, electrical sparks flying once in a while as the contraption would shudder. "Sparky," Monkey said, glancing back toward the others as he heard footsteps behind him. The rest of the drivers had come over to see what was going on. "Sparky, can you give us a visual recording of what happened to you and Vert after you went through the Wheel of Power?"
"Hello," Sparky chirped out in that mechanical voice of his. Seconds later a strange greenish glow erupted from his optical sensors. They saw Vert and what appeared to be between three and five floating robots that looked an awful lot like Gig. Reverb's doors suddenly swung open of their own accord and Vert's seatbelt undid itself.
Vert was saying something, but no sound accompanied the visual. "Apparently the sound upgrade didn't install correctly," Monkey said in a sheepish voice, a grin to match it crossing his face. Seconds later there was a flash of light then nothing. A visual of the Highway 35 area suddenly appeared.
"That must've been shortly before we found him," Tork said. As if to prove he was correct, they then saw the Sweeper lumbering into view.
Karma looked over at Nolo and Kurt, "My guess would be that the Silencerz have Vert." She looked back toward Sparky and Monkey.
"Sparky, do the Silencerz have Vert?" Monkey asked. Sparky started jumping up and down, his mechanical arms waving around in the air. "Hello," he repeated over and over.
"I would have to take that as a yes," Kurt said.
Nolo sighed, "With the AcceleDrome destroyed, we have no way of even attempting to rescue him. We can't use the same ploy we used to rescue Wylde."
"We'll figure something out," Tork said, placing a hand on the Teku leader's shoulder. "One way or another, we'll bring Vert home safely." Yes, one way or another they would bring Vert home safely, one way or another they would think of a way to get into the Silencerz headquarters and rescue their missing friend.
Well, there's Chapter 4, though it's probably not what you were expecting. It's basically just a filler chapter until I get to the good parts. Though the good parts are still a while in coming, there's still a few obstacles that need to be overcome and then things will start to get more interesting.
I greatly appreciate the reviews, they make it a lot easier to come up with the next chapters. Helps to figure out exactly what you want to see happen and what you want explained. Keep feeding me the reviews, I love them.
Now, onto the shout outs…
Dark672: I'm glad you think it's good so far, I've had a few problems here and there and any praise is appreciated.
KawaiiYamato: This probably most definitely wasn't the chapter you were looking forward to, but it adds a slight bit of humor to things. And humor is going to be needed later on down the road. I agree, it's always the quiet ones that get you…grins I wouldn't quite say that I've fallen in love with a cartoon, I think more of it as along the lines of being obsessed. As for what this horrible fate has to do with Shirako, can't give that away just yet. It'd ruin the whole plot line since it plays an integral part in things.
Southernlady: again, thank you for the praise and I'm very glad that you like it.
Alexandria Scherazade: I'm glad you really liked the chapter and I definitely plan on continuing. Chapter 5 is already completed and ready to be loaded, but I'm gonna wait a few days to do that, see how well this chapter goes over. As for Shirako and Leti (that's the girl's name) being related, you'll find more information on that in Chapter 5, but it'll still leave a few questions swirling around in the air until Chapter 6.
Zero Lement: In answer to your question on whether or not the Silencerz are still tailing Vert: they most definitely are. It would be in his best interest to continue moving, they're a hell of a lot closer to him than he thinks. By sitting still for as long as he is talking to his cousins and their friends, let's just say he's inviting trouble right into Reverb.
KTezla: Awesome? You have no idea how much that simple word means at the moment. I'm so very glad you're enjoying the story and that you're going to continue reading. Young at heart…yes, that most definitely describes me! My mother is constantly telling me to act my age…to which I have got to say that I seldom listen to her. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as the previous ones, I can guarantee that things are going to be heating up very quickly.
Thanks again to those who reviewed!