The Truth That Lies Beyond The Lies

An AcceleRacers Fanfiction

By: Wings of Speed

Disclaimer: As before, still in Chapter 1.

Summary: The Teku and Maniacs begin plans for their new cars. Tezla blows a fuse as he attempts to recreate the holographic image of the Wheel and one of the Atomic Winds has an accident…of a humorous kind.

The Truth That Lies Beyond The Lies

Chapter 11: Creature from the Blue Lagoon…Maybe

It hadn't taken Tezla long to find another place to call home, and because of this fact the drivers wondered if he hadn't had this place picked out a long time ago just in case something was to happen to the AcceleDrome. If that was the case, was it also possible that he had other locations chosen too, as a contingency plan?

It was a two story affair, set into the side of a rolling hill, with a large basement below. The upper story consisted of the bedrooms and other various rooms set up for whatever the strange and secretive scientist had up his sleeve at the moment. The lower story was made up of a kitchen, living room, dining room and a few other rooms intended for Heaven knows what. There were multiple bathrooms on each floor and some of the bathrooms connected a few of the bedrooms together.

The basement below had been converted into a rather large and roomy garage and work area. There were two sectioned off bays, similar to those in the AcceleDrome that had each of the teams' logos before their entrances. All in all, it was reminiscent of the AcceleDrome but different in its own way. It held its secrets as well.

Beneath the cavernous basement, known only to Tezla, Lani, the Teku and Metal Maniacs was the recreated AcceleDrome. There were two large garage-type doors hidden in each of the teams' bays that led down to the new AcceleDrome. Through these doors, when the time was deemed right, the rebuilt cars could be transported to the still in production hologram of the Wheel of Power.

The sun had just risen and the drivers could be found down in the bays working on new cars, parts and sheet metal strewn all about the floor. Five cars were sitting out beyond the two sectioned off bays, belonging to neither the Teku nor Metal Maniacs, these cars belonged to the Atomic Winds.

Kurt stared at the blue prints spread out on the table in front of him, something about this new car didn't look right; something just didn't sit well with him. It was missing something, though he wasn't sure what. Maybe the spoiler was too small for the body of the car? Perhaps the front end looked to small for the engine that was going to be placed there? Maybe it was just the whole car itself!

"Problems?" Nolo asked as he walked over to the table that Kurt was sitting at. There was a perplexed and almost disgusted look on his teammate's face.

Kurt looked up at him and blinked several times, his eyes going fuzzy from looking at the blue prints for entirely far to long. Then he ran a hand through his dark hair and shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure which car this one is supposed to be based off of. I originally thought of going along with Battle Spec's plans, but this car seems similar to Slingshot." He sighed and looked back down at the blue prints. "They were completely different cars…I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for here Nolo."

Nolo looked down at the car on the blue prints and smiled to himself. He already had his car started, the frame for it welded and ready for the chassis and everything else to be added. It probably didn't help that he hadn't been sleeping too much lately either; he'd probably gotten four hours sleep in the past three nights. That's if he was lucky.

He laid a hand on Kurt's shoulder, "What ever you come up with will be fine." He glanced over at where the rest of his teammates were working. Shirako was of course working on another truck, one reminiscent of Bassline, but slightly different. It still packed the six speaker set up, something Vert had argued diligently against. Nolo had pointed out that Trinity and the Atomic Winds would be long gone by the time this new truck was built. That had seemed to appease his blond haired friend. For the moment at least.

At least Vert didn't have to worry about building a new car, he still had Reverb, but the blond had still insisted on building another one. Just in case, he had said.

Karma was working on something, surprisingly it was similar to the Lancer that Vert's cousin drove. Along the same lines as the car, but with a style that was all Karma.

Nolo sighed and stretched, his muscles feeling extremely cramped; he was exhausted and beginning to feel his lack of sleep. He allowed his shoulders to slump slightly as he walked over toward the welded frame of his burgeoning car. This was gonna be Synkro all over again, except maybe this time with a slightly different paint scheme. Green maybe? Not a vivid green or dark one, maybe something along the lines of lime green. Techno green perhaps?

He shrugged slightly, allowing his muscles to further relax.

He jumped slightly as music suddenly crashed through the garage. He whirled around, glaring at where Shirako was sitting, the young Asian's laptop before him, his fingers diligently typing away at keys. His headphones were dropped down around his neck, the music turned off. Or at least Nolo presumed it was, there was no telling with the music that was now bouncing from wall to wall within their work area.

He caught Vert's eyes and also noticed that Kurt had gotten up from his work table and was walking toward the entrance into their bay. It didn't take long for both Karma and Vert to get up as well to follow their teammate. Shirako had finally stopped his typing and was staring in the direction of the entrance.

Nolo sighed as he turned and proceeded toward the entrance as well.

"This should be interesting," Karma said just loud enough to be heard above the blaring music.

Almost as if on cue the music was raised up a couple of notches, to the point where you had to yell at the person next to you just to be heard, even then there was no guarantee that they'd actually be able to understand what you were saying. Trinity was leaning against Bass Assault, her hands behind her head as she allowed her body to gently sway to the techno beat. Courtney and the rest of the Atomic Winds were either standing next to their own cars or had the hoods popped and inspecting parts beneath.

Kurt sighed and screamed into Nolo's ear, hoping his friend would be able to understand what it was he was saying, "She's doing it on purpose, just to irritate Pork Chop."

As if he knew he were being talked about, Pork Chop stalked from the Maniacs side of the spacious garage. His mouth was moving but no one could understand what it was he was screaming.

Trinity must've caught site of him or barely heard his screaming for she suddenly pushed herself away from the Lancer, turned around and leaned into the open window. Suddenly there was silence, except for Pork Chop's sudden yelling.

"-off, you're just as bad as Shirako with the blasted crap you call music!" he was screaming, half of what he had been saying having been drown out by Trinity's music.

She grinned innocently, "Something the matter?"

He stalked up to her, his face barely refrained anger. "It was bad enough when we had to listen to the crap that was blasted through that Teku's speakers, I damn well don't want to listen to your crap now."

"You don't like my music?"

"Don't like it?" Pork Chop sputtered, "I damn well can't stand it. I wouldn't call that shit music, its noise to blow ones hearing, that's what it is!"

Trinity's eyes sparkled as she raised her wrist and suddenly the garage was thumping with another strain of music. It wasn't the techno beat that had been vibrating through the area moments before, now it was something much softer and more mellow. It was softer in its beat, not as abrasive on ones ears, except for the fact that Bass Assault was adding extra bass to the mix, causing the car's windows to rattle.

This time there was actual lyrics with the instruments, actual words to be heard, if it wasn't for the pounding bass attempting to drown them out.

Pork Chop ground his teeth together and glared at the Atomic Winds leader. She only smiled back at him. "Better?" she asked and she couldn't hide the smugness from her voice.

He snorted but turned around and stalked back into his own work area. One way or another he'd make it so that the new stereo on wheels wouldn't work.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Lani stared at Dr. Tezla, she was trying to figure out what it was that was going through his head but that was like attempting to discover the mysteries of the universe. Nearly impossible. He was sitting at one of the computer terminals in the new AcceleDrome, his eyes had been fastened to this one particular computer screen for the past three hours. He hadn't even moved during that time, at least not that she was aware of.

"Dr. Tezla, exactly what is it that you're doing?" she finally dared to ask.

He didn't seem to hear her, or at least gave no indication that he had. He hadn't so much as moved, didn't even turn around to look at her.

He was too engrossed in his work, had been ever since he had moved what was left of his operations to this particular fall back area. He had countless other locations selected in case his operations were ever needed to be moved, he'd planned for the worst case scenario. This was only one of a dozen such places, places he could go to continue his work.

He suddenly turned around in his chair, his purple shaded glasses near to the end of his nose as he looked up at her. "I think it may finally be ready," he said softly as he turned back around.

He hit a series of buttons on the control panel in front of him and waited. There was a surge of power and various lights on the board lit up. Below, in the main area of the new AcceleDrome a holographic image popped to life then suddenly blinked into none-existence as soon as it had appeared.

There was another raw surge of power then all hell broke loose. Lights began to flicker and various claxons began to emit their shrill sirens. The lights flickered once more then dimmed until the emergency lighting came on.

Tezla sighed and was tempted to slam his fist down on the darkened boards before him. What good would it do though, other than to give him a few seconds of pleasure?

"It wasn't supposed to do that, was it?" Lani questioned wearily.

Dr. Tezla turned around to look at her. "No, it wasn't," he answered.

Apparently he didn't have it after all; apparently there was still a lot of work that needed to be done until the new AcceleDrome was ready.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

There was a couple brief shouts of fright as the lights suddenly went out in the garage. Within seconds five cars had their headlights illuminated, offering what meager light they could to the darkened garage.

"What happened?" Karma asked as she and the rest of the Teku walked out to where the headlights were shining brightly on the Atomic Winds cars. She looked over at Nolo then glanced in the direction of the Maniacs as they to walked out, perplexed looks crossing their features as well.

"What happened?" Tork repeated Karma's earlier question.

"Someone blow a fuse or something?" Wylde questioned.

"We thought maybe you could tell us." Nolo responded.

"It's probably a breaker or something. Tezla should have it fixed in no time," Vert offered. The scientist had probably blow a fuse or something while working down in the secret chamber beneath the old mansion.

"I say if he doesn't have it fixed in, say about 10 minutes, we go look for the old man," Mikey opined. He didn't like the dark, especially in some creepy place he wasn't familiar with. He slept with a night light on at home; who in their right mind would think he'd feel comfortable in some creepy place like this with the lights out? There was probably some ax murderer in the place waiting in the shadows to get them all.

Omega One's driver suddenly felt someone jab him in the ribs, "The boogey man's not going to jump out and get you, least of all while we're all here." Trinity joked, trying to put her friend and teammate at ease. All of the Atomic Winds knew of his fear of the dark and knew the reasoning behind it as well.

"Besides, if he does he'll just give you back," Leti joked.

Mikey sidled around the front of Omega One's front so that he was standing in the Civic's headlights. He wanted to make sure that if something did decide to jump out and try to get him he'd at least have a fighting chance before it did him in. Maybe the ax murderer would go after the others first, give him a warning before it went after him. Or maybe it would be able to smell his fear and go after him first anyways. Or maybe it was some hideous creature from the blue lagoon and it was slinking its way around in this old creepy house, just waiting for them to let their guard down!

He laid a hand down on Omega One's hood, his whole body trembling with the thoughts that were suddenly running rampant through his mind.

"It's just a power outage, there's nothing in this house that's going to jump out and get us," Karma said once she had noticed the look of fear and panic that was plastered across the face of the Atomic Winds' Driver.

He looked at her, giving her a look as if to say she were nuts. His eyes were still wide with fear and the look of panic across his face probably would have been comical if the situation were different. It was something of interest to see a 'big, strong man' scared of the dark and looking like he were about ready to have an accident in his pants.

Courtney slowly walked up to her teammate, a look of sympathy crossing her face. "Hey Mikey," she said softly, "Everything's gonna be all right. The light'll come back on in a few moments and you'll see that nothing was going to jump out at you."

"Hello," an electronic voice said from the shadows, near the entrance to the Maniacs bay. This brought about a new surge of panic in the driver and he actually screamed and tried scrambling up onto the hood of his car.

Karma couldn't help the laugh that escaped from her mouth and attempted to cover it up with one of her hands. Courtney turned around to glare at the other driver, a look of promised torture crossing her face.

This brought a laugh from Trinity.

"I'm glad the both of you think it's funny," Courtney grumbled beneath her breath as she glared first at her cousin than at the Teku driver.

"Hello," the same voice from the darkness repeated.

"What is that thing?" Courtney nearly shouted as she watched the robot walk awkwardly from darkened shadows.

Mikey was up on top of his car, sitting on the roof as he watched the strange contraption of metal and bolts stop near one of the Metal Maniacs.

"That thing is Monkey's creation," Wylde griped, staring in annoyance at Sparky.

"What is it?" Courtney repeated.

"It's a robot," Monkey answered, giving the Atomic Winds a look as if to say 'Isn't-it-obvious?'

"It's a pile of junk," came from Wylde.

"Hello."

"Can't it say anything other than hello?" Courtney asked, eying Sparky with a look of disbelief.

"Sure he can," Monkey said, his voice sounding rather proud.

"Hello."

"Sure," Courtney said, giving a look to Monkey saying that she highly doubted it.

Suddenly the lights flickered then came back on, causing everyone to shield their eyes from the sudden brightness.

"I'm gonna go change quick," Mikey said, drawing everyone's attention back to the still frightened young man.

No one said a word as he climbed from the roof of his car and walked towards the door leading up into the main house. No one said a word, but as the door closed behind him there was a sudden fit of laughter that didn't die down till a few minutes afterwards.

Well, I think we can all guess exactly what it was that Mikey did and why there was all the laughter after he left. Now I know I had said about some friendships leaning toward romance in the last chapter's end note and there was really no evidence of that occurring in this chapter, the reason was because for some odd reason when I plan for something to happen the story plan's otherwise. It just happened to do this again and ruined everything I did have planned, so hopefully sometime later on there will be evidence of the romance to come.

I know we are not supposed to do this, but I feel the need to say thank you to those that have been kind enough to review…

Kara: Just as long as you review at some point I'm positively happy! Though I do look forward to your reviews. As for Trinity and Karma coming to blows, it will happen, but at a later date, there's some things that need to be brought into the light first. Yeah I'd read that 'Breaking Point's' release date is supposed to be 12/6 whether or not it's actual is still probably up for debate but I hope it's true. I haven't gotten to see it yet and really want to since I've seen the other three. In all honesty, I'd wanted to ask if I could use Kara as well, I think putting her and Trinity in the same story would be something of interest. Look for Kara to show up in the next chapter, I'd already had things planned out on how to introduce her into the scheme of things, I just didn't know how to go about asking if I could use her. You made it really very easy for me by asking yourself, thanks! I'm not sure what my favorite realm would be…one that had Shirako in it for sure! Yeah, I've got a lot of the trading cards, or actually I should say my son does but I think I've had hold of them a lot more than he has!

Dragoneian: I know what you mean with the whole deal of being sick, I've got a nasty cold at the moment and was sent home sick from work the other day. I'm glad you're feeling better and hopefully it stays that way.

Dark672: glad you still like

KawaiiYamato: Girl, between you and Kara…I just love the reviews, you two make me so happy! As for Shirako…I'll continue to argue with you on who he belongs to! He's mine, all mine I say! Mine, mine, MINE! Ok, got that out of my system now. Now you'd better update! I'm waiting…still waiting…still waiting…you get the point, lol.