And The Lies Continue to Crumble
An AcceleRacers Fanfiction
By: Wings of Speed
Disclaimer: Look in the first chapter, you'll find it there.
Summary: It's hard to tell the truth from the lies when you're in so thick you can't remember one from the other or what was originally a lie and what was originally the truth. Vert discovers in a rather dramatic fashion that those he considered his closest relatives are in all actuality: the enemy.
And The Lies Continue to Crumble
Chapter 7: So It Begins
Vert blinked his eyes several times, but he still saw total blackness. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, no shadows to greet his questing eyes. How could things have come to this? He wondered bleakly. It was beginning to seem that the Silencerz were a family business. First his father, and now two of his cousins. He had to wonder if Serena had been involved with the shady organization before her death as well.
Could it have possibly been her involvement with the Silencerz that had led to her death? Were they the reason that Serena was now lying six feet under?
"I'll tell you this," Trinity's voice cut over the PA system, "Leti most definitely is not with me. She's about six or so paces away from you at the moment and enjoying a bit of a much needed rest." A light chuckle followed the words.
"What!" Several shouts were heard at the same time.
Shirako swore in Japanese, his hands clenching in the darkness. If anything has happened to her, I don't care what my feelings are for you Trinity, nothing will be able to save you. "You better now have harmed her Trinity!" Shirako shouted out, even in the darkness he could feel his friends surprised eyes on him, surprised at his sudden outburst and the anger behind it. So unlike the quiet young man they knew.
"Oh, you need not worry; Leti is perfectly fine for the moment. But it will do you no good attempting to get into that room; I've got it locked down quite well. There'll be no getting in or out of it. Plus there's the nice little stipulation of the bomb that's located right inside of the door, the slightest of breezes hits that bomb and it'll go boom. Did I also mention the fact that anything within a ten foot radius of the bomb when it goes off will undoubtedly be destroyed?
"But now onto other matters, to aid in your search of me, I'll be kind enough to restore some of the backup lighting. Though just enough to give you a sense of your surroundings, but you'll have to worry about what might jump out from the shadows at you, or more precisely, who. You never know after all, I could be lurking around any corner, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to jump out and finish the job." There was what sounded like a light chuckle over the PA system, then a click indicating she had shut it off.
Seconds later, the faint illumination of the back up lights flickered to life, casting each and every person in terrifying, dimly lit shadows.
Shirako's eyes were hard black orbs of coal, his face set in a grim line as he continued to glare at the door that was keeping his cousin from rescue. "We can't leave her in there," he ground out.
"We don't have much of a choice for the moment, Shirako. We can't risk detonating that bomb," Lani pointed out. She felt helpless and by the looks on most everyone else's faces, she was inclined to believe that they felt the same way. "We'll have to find Trinity and see if there's someway to disarm that bomb before we even try getting through that door. We can't risk it going off…if what she said is true, it'd kill your cousin Shirako."
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"And so the mission nears it completion and within the end of the hour Vert will be in our possession and his friends will be sleeping six feet under." Her voice was cold, calculating. There was no emotion, no sign of warmth or human compassion to signfy that the speaker was even remotely human in any aspect.
"Your car is ready then? Nothing lies in your way of completing your mission? Nothing at all?" Admiral Graymond's voice asked over the small communication channel that had been opened via Dr. Tezla's own devices.
"No sir, nothing will hamper or interfere with the completion of my mission. Within the hour, Dr. Tezla and his team will be nothing more than a distant, albeit painful, memory for the Silencerz. And as long as General Tyler has seen to the well-being of Technetium, then yes, my car will be ready to go once we get to that stage of the plan."
A wicked gleam entered the admiral's eyes as he rubbed his hands together in a gleeful fashion. "Good, good. You will be commended on the success of your mission, Corporal Wheeler, once you deliver Vert Wheeler to us. Once Vert is with us, I suspect that you will be well rewarded for your endeavors by our superiors."
Her voice was a monotone, "He will be delivered within the hour sir, you can count on that if nothing else." Indeed, Vert Wheeler would be delivered to those in the Silencerz organization and Dr. Tezla and his group would never live to see the light of day. They would all die within the confines of this manor.
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"We split up, three teams of five. One member from the Winds in each group so we can keep an eye on them and make sure they're not trying to help their buddy out in some way. Taro, you'd better stay with Mikey. Pork Chop, you'd better take Jon. I'll keep Courtney with me." Tork started, issuing orders like he was the one in command of everyone there.
"Excuse me here!" Courtney started, her voice aggravated at being talked about the way she and her friends were.
"I think it'd be in your best interest to remain quiet at the moment, unless you'd like us to silence ya for ya." Tork growled, giving her a look that promised pain if she didn't cooperate.
"I'm staying with Courtney," Vert said suddenly, still feeling in his gut that things weren't at all as they were appearing. There was more going on here than they were seeing. Things had to be going on that they weren't aware of. They were missing pieces to the puzzle and until those pieces were found, they wouldn't have a clear picture of what was going on. He had a gut feeling that things were definitely not as they were appearing, but why couldn't anyone else see that? Though he knew all evidence was pointing to Courtney working for the Silencerz, his gut was still telling him that he was missing something…something vital and very important.
"And I'm staying with Vert," Kara spoke up, moving to stand along side Vert and Courtney. She glanced up at Vert and smiled at him, he returned the smile, but there was a sadness to it. His eyes told her silently that he wasn't happy with the way things were turning out, that he still couldn't force his mind to grapple with the idea that his cousins were working for the enemy.
"Fine, then you're with me," Tork said as he glanced around at the gathered racers. "Monkey, you're with me too. Wylde, you go with Taro."
Nolo stared at Tork for a moment and it appeared that the Teku leader was about to disagree with Tork's orders, but then he snapped his mouth shut and remained quiet. Somehow, he felt that Tork would be the best possibility they had in getting out of this mess alive. Something told him that their lives depended on their next few moves.
There was brief bickering and squabbles over who was going with who, but finally in the end the three teams were formed. Tork had guardianship of Courtney with Vert, Kara and Monkey traveling with him. Taro was stuck watching over Mikey with Karma, Wylde and Shirako accompanying him. Pork Chop had the pleasure of watching over Jon with Nolo, Lani and Kurt helping him in that aspect.
"Pork Chop, since you have Lani with you it would probably be best if you headed to the main control room and see if you guys can undo whatever it is that Trinity's done there. Taro, you and your team head down to the garage, just to make certain she doesn't try taking one of our cars there. Meanwhile, my group and I will head out to the newly arrived cars."
Mikey snorted as this.
Tork turned fury rimmed eyes at the Winds member, "Got a problem with that?"
Mikey got up in the brawny man's face, nearly chest to chest. Mikey was small, compared to Tork at least. "Yeah man, I do got a problem with that. I got a problem with this whole thing. You're treating us like criminals and I don't like it. We didn't do a damn thing wrong!" He stuck a finger right into Tork's chest, "Besides, there's the point that Trin wouldn't want one of your cars, even if they were finished."
Tork actually chuckled at this, "You're pretty damn brave now that the lights are turned back on, besides, we've got cars down there that are road ready, just not completely finished. Then there's also the fact that I'm worried about her trying to take one of your cars. Wouldn't want her wrapping one of your precious stereo on wheels around another pole, now would we?"
This brought chuckles from several people, but when Mikey glared around at the gathered group no one would meet his eyes and the light laughter seemed to stop immediately. "I wouldn't have a problem with it if Trin did take Omega," Mikey growled. "Unlike you Maniacs, we have no problem with sharing our cars with the rest of our crew." He completely ignored Tork's jab about his fear of the dark, not taking the bait to what he knew probably would've been a loosing battle for him.
"Whateva," Wylde growled as he walked up to both Mikey and Tork. "We ain't accomplishing a thing standing here and arguing with one another. That leader of yours could be doing all sorts of things and if we're going to stop her I think it's time to move out."
"I agree with Wylde for once," Nolo spoke up.
"Fine then, let's move," Tork said as he spun on his heel and started down the hallway, heading in the general direction of the garage.
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Trinity had been to the garage, just long enough to leave a few surprises for the Maniacs and Teku. She wanted to make certain that anyone entering the garage would be staying there for a little while, the fewer people to mess up her well laid plans…the better.
It was just too bad that she wouldn't be there to see the looks of surprise that crossed their faces when the bullets started to fly, so to speak.
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"How nice to see you again, Miss Wheeler. I trust everything is going as planned?" the woman that had arrived with the two cars asked as Trinity sprinted out of the manor doors. Her steely blue eyes watched the younger woman as she drew closer to the two parked tow-backs.
The strawberry-blond stopped beside the carrier that had at one point held 'Bass Reflex' on its back, the white Lancer now sitting behind it. A look of ice crept into her eyes, she briefly saluted the other woman. "I wish I could say it's a pleasure to see you as well General Tyler, but we both know it's not. It's a far cry from a pleasure to be seeing you this soon again. As for everything going as planned…so far so good. I don't see any reason why the mission won't proceed as planned."
"And you're certain that Mr. Wheeler will come out here? He won't go someplace else and ruin what you've got in store for him?" General Tyler questioned, it was up to her to make certain that their objective was reached and that nothing got in the way of the Silencerz capturing Vert Wheeler as had been planned. The boy would not slip through their clutches again, she would make certain of it, if nothing else!
"I know Vert well enough and he knows me well enough as well. He'll know that once I accomplish everything I've set out to do that I'll make a mad dash for my car, the only thing is, is that he doesn't know that I accomplished everything rather quickly and am now just waiting for him and his friends to make their appearance."
"Rather cocky, aren't we Corporal Wheeler? Are you sure you'll be able to handle both him and his friends?" General Tyler asked, a glimmer of ice and amusement entering her steel grayish-blue eyes. "You're certain there won't be any unexpected surprises in store for you?"
Trinity grinned, the malevolence shining through her eyes. "I thrive on unexpected surprises, this you should already know Reanna." She took a risk in calling the general by her first name, but at this point the young woman really didn't give a damn one way or the other. The general couldn't kill her, at least not yet, but in the given future, anything was a possibility. "Besides, there's also the fact that I've been with him and his friends long enough to get a feel for the way they operate. They'll split up, mostly in an attempt to keep the rest of my crew in observation. They'll be toying with the idea that the rest of the Winds are in on this somehow. Little do they know that so far I've been working on my own, with little help from the rest of the Silencerz. All in all, I expect no unexpected little surprises in store, everything will go just as I foresee it. Everything will fall into its appointed place and Vert will be ours by the fall of night."
The general's eyes narrowed slightly, but other than that there was no indication of her displeasure of the young corporal using her first name, or the verbal rebuke. "One day though Trinity, you will be faced with an unexpected surprise that even you won't be able to squirm your way out of and when that day comes, I truly hope to hell that I'll be there to witness it."
Trinity smiled, but it appeared more of a snarl as she allowed her teeth to bare viciously. "Don't worry, if there's tickets being sold to that event, I'll make certain you get a front row seat. I may even be tempted to throw your ass in the ring myself."
This brought a chuckle to the general's lips, "You become more and more like your twin as the imperative asserts itself more forcefully. One day, what little vestiges are left of your former self will be completely wiped away and you will become the perfect Silencerz agent. Nothing will stand in your way and whatever or whoever is stupid enough to try and stop you will be completely and utterly destroyed without you so much as batting an eyelash."
The younger woman's eyes sparkled maliciously, "You'd better hope that never happens in your lifetime then. You'd definitely be one of the first things on hell's creation that'd I'd wipe clean out of existence."
The threat did not seem to disturb the general in anyway, if anything a smile of complete satisfaction seemed to cross her face. "I truly hope I do live to see that day. I believe that even Admiral Graymond will come to fear you once you reach your full potential."
"He's definitely on the top of my list of people that should be done away with…it's probably a pretty good tie between the two of you. But I'm quite certain that in the end, he'll take the cake. What you've done to me pales in comparison to the hell that he's put me through. In the end, he'll regret ever forcing me to go through the conditioning and imperative. He'll die wishing he'd never met me."
There was a sudden beeping sound and Trinity glanced with interest at her wrist. She touched an area about an inch or two above her skin and a metallic silver and purple wrist remote appeared seemingly from nowhere. She hit a series of buttons on the remote and a grin of satisfaction appeared on her face.
"The net steadily grows tighter around the prey," she said softly, a look of delight flashing across her face.
"So it begins?" General Tyler asked.
Trinity nodded her head, "Yes, and so it begins."
Ah, another Chapter that probably adds more questions than answers…or perhaps vice versa? I don't know what's going on in the minds of the readers and Heaven knows I've been gone long enough, but there's been so much going on in my life at the moment that a lot of things needed to be put on hold. You can thank Kara for this update though, her two updates in the past couple of days pretty much demanded that I update as well, can't have her outdoing me after all, lol. Hope you enjoyed this rather confusing and vexing chapter…though maybe in reality it wasn't confusing for you. I don't know, I guess only you do.
Shout Outs:
Firedragon: sorry for the long wait, but there's the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed.
KY: I'm feeling lazy and don't feel like spelling your name out completely, forgive me? You can't have my Racing Drone Hybrid, that's an impossibility, it's all mine! Yes, poor Shirako and Vert and things are only going to get worse as the story continues.
Kara: You updated, so I guess I'll update as well. Though I am currently re-working this and the original story but I figured I would give you something to read while I revamp both of the stories. I'll start to repost the re-edited versions as I get them done. They're going to be improved and hopefully get the story back on the track it was originally intended to follow. I really don't want to see your story come to an end and hopefully you will do a sequel. I tried to leave a review but I got an Review Throttle error message, apparently the site felt I had tried to review to many times when I had only tried to review once.
Moriko: I value my reviewers' opinions so I figured if this was a lot easier on you I would accommodate whether or not the site liked it. Hope you're still with me on this story, especially since I was gone for such a long time, at least long for me. And odd moods are fun!
Chase: Glad to know you're back and hopefully you'll update soon yourself.